


Who You Callin' Hyuuga? - Arc 4 - Academy Days

by Ikasury



Series: WYCH - Series [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Academy days, Adorable little Brother, Beware the cute ones, Bigger Better More Badass, Cloud Village, Crash Course, Everyone's A Jerk, Exposition, Eye Scream, Fix-it Seals!, For Want of a Nail, From Hell!, Gen, Goddamn Cats!, Graduation, Grandma and Grandpa don't get along, Grandma is a Sailor, Hinata is Yorihi, ITS A TRAP!, Illusions, Kumogakure, Larry Curly and Moe, Lots of OCs - Freeform, New Best Friend, Prodigy doesn't get it, Prove Your Worth, Raikage is your Daddy!, Raised by Assassins, Ripple Effect, UST, Uchiha Bastards, Village of Ocs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 10:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 108,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5963236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ikasury/pseuds/Ikasury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Yorihi's return from training she's ready to prove her worth to her father and Kumo as a whole... only thing stopping her is this pesky requirement about attending the Kumo Academy. Yorihi, meet socializing with student's your own age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> Arc 4 rearing to go! :D
> 
> Dis: Kishimoto owns Naruto, i just want to keep Kumo~
> 
> Enjoy!!

The first time she had ever seen the main gate to the Village Hidden in the Clouds was the day she returned from her training of four years in complete darkness. The sky was grey like her Teacher’s eyes, the wind was blowing enough to rattle the large bridge, and it was raining. This was the first time in four years she had seen rain. The first time in four years she had heard thunder, seen people, forests, mountains, animals, insects… what little few scraps of life tried futilely to exist in this harsh place.

It was the first time she remembered looking up and just seeing rain.

She remembered when she was younger, how frightened the storms made her, how she’d huddle under the covers in darkness, or by anyone within reach, typically her Father during the day and her Teacher at night. She often wondered if neither of them liked the rain… they were usually quiet aside from comforting her…

When her focus shifted back to level with the bridge she took in the form of the great main gate, the giant thundering Oni riding down to cause mayhem looking distinctly like her Father…

Part of her was saddened by the fact she couldn’t _tell_ anyone how she felt about these ‘new’ sights, let alone that she could even ‘see’ them at all… and while some part of her thought that would be ‘difficult’ it really wasn’t. People didn’t ask questions that were obviously answered for them, a girl with a bandana around her eyes was blind, no reason to ask her about the sights of new things. She could still ‘feel’ things out with the rest of her senses; it honestly surprised her how much the caves dampened her senses now that she was out in the wide open world. It was somewhat overwhelming at first, but spending a week on the road had helped clear that up… somewhat. Some things were still a bit hazy and required quite a bit of adjusting… like toning down her hearing and sense of smell, it was strange the number of scents and small sounds she was picking up she was convinced most people didn’t, she certainly didn’t remember it when she was younger.

Right now was getting used to sight, especially her spherical 360 degree sight all around her… it was strange, knowing everything going on and _seeing_ without it being in a chakra haze or even really trying. She’d yet to turn her eyes ‘off’ and honestly forgot they were on half the time, so unused to ‘seeing’ and actually using it.

It did have its uses though, even if she couldn’t tell anyone… like seeing her Kouhai continuously give her quick glances, perplexed, as they walked, her Teacher traversing the path on instinct, mind seemingly elsewhere, the strange looks she got from the glasses-wearing chuunin at the gate while the larger one smiled, ignoring the shorter’s logic that she couldn’t ‘see’ it… watching the gate rise in front of her and fall with a loud crash behind her and never once moving her head.

Then there was the actual _City_ of Kumo, large suspension bridges and platforms, spiraling towers built out of rock, hanging terraces and wide open balconies with breezy arid walks… _THIS_ was her home; wire and wood and rock, miles above the cloud-line where the barest wind could spell death and the slippery rain-soaked boards groaned under the added weight, shaking with each drop that hit…

- _Home…_ -

Yorihi _felt_ herself blink behind the bandana, but nothing obscured her vision and she wasn’t entirely sure she kept her eyes open. This was the first time, the _real_ first time she had actually looked at her city. When she was smaller she’d look out her window at the sprawling spires and bridges but never outside certain occasions had she actually been out in the bare streets and just _looked_ at the place that was her home, and when she was ‘out’ most of the time her eyes were ‘off’ and when they weren’t she was too focused on something else more important. So she spent _this_ moment to absently run her eyes over the impressive architecture and beautiful array of ordered-chaos that was the wires, bridges, multilayered platforms and so on that devised the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

Vaguely her other senses kicked into her curious haze, reminding her that a **_blind_** girl doesn’t gawk wondering why and how the village was made the way it was… she had to physically close her mouth, acting like she was yawning, incidentally popping her ears and making the sounds of the place less muffled. At least she hadn’t turned her head.

Leaving her free hand in front of her mouth, the popping of her ears caused her to hiccup; she leveled her gaze and focused on the new slew of sounds. Mostly, it was people; lots of murmuring, and when she focused her sight on those closest many were passing their gaze on her… well not _just_ her, but her Teacher as well and probably her fidgeting Kouhai by proxy. She had to give Mabui credit, for as embarrassed as her Kouhai had acted to her, though she didn’t understand why and Bachi-chan had just kind of snickered at the teen, the girl stood rather tall and passive walking next to the white woman between them. If she didn’t know any better the dark skinned girl was strutting, like her Uncle did, obviously proud of herself and where she was… Yorihi wondered what would cause this… then hiccupped.

She held her breathe for several seconds, remembering this trick from her early days in the caves, as she listened to some of the murmuring. There wasn’t much the small girl could make out that made any sense to her, but she got the general gist of it all; pride, fear, and respect all directed at her Teacher and Kouhai, she apparently ignored. Part of her found this annoying, Bachiko while in his invisible state she could feel his agitated presence around her, not sure if he was guarding her or annoyed they were being nearly ignored by the people of the village… Yorihi wanted to stand tall and show them she was worthy of their attention too!

… unfortunately the small girl, having spent the last four years in relative solitude aside from an old blind man and her cat, shrunk under the scrutiny. It wasn’t particularly obvious, at least _she_ thought it wasn’t, as she inched closer to her Teacher clutching the woman’s long kimono sleeve tighter, almost wanting to hide under it. Hiding was good; the darkness taught her that, if they can’t sense you they can’t get to you.

If either her Teacher or Kouhai noticed the unconscious action they made no mention of it, primarily continuing their walk in silence.

That is until they reached the edge of one platform…

“Mabui,” her Teacher’s voice was soft, as far as she could tell, yet oddly loud compared to the silence that filled the air previously. The junior teen paused several steps ahead, already moving automatically to cross the bridge ahead of them, stopping as the older woman’s voice range out. Those grey eyes were open on the tan girl, meeting her blue-green ones, “continue onward and escort Yorihi-hime to the Raikage,” a glint entered the white woman’s eyes that Yorihi didn’t understand but apparently the assistant-in-training did.

The grey haired girl gave a polite nod, a slight bow to her sensei before meeting the woman’s eyes again, “Of course sensei,” her blue-green eyes turned to the little girl at her sensei’s side, noticing she seemed to be facing the ground, but it didn’t make much difference to someone blind, “Come along Yorihi-hime,” unconsciously her hand twitched, normally when faced with such a young child she would have reached out to take her hand and guide her, but her ‘Senpai’ as the girl liked to call herself had shown to be quite capable of navigating on her own, blind or no, and seemed rather sensitive about physical contact or just naturally shied away from it… the fact she was always either holding her sensei’s hand or sleeve just showed how comfortable she was with the deadly assassin.

So it really wasn’t a surprise when Mabui watched her sensei, usually so clipped and dismissive in everything she did, especially with her, had turned to leave towards another bridge, only to halt as there was a tug on her sleeve. The little girl hadn’t moved from her position, just facing the ground with one hand fisted around one of the white woman’s long sleeves as a pout seemed to spread along the visible portion of her face.

Mabui watched, as her clipped sensei stopped at the first tug, turned the slightest and gazed down at the small girl facing away but adamantly holding on to her.

The action between the two of them was so awkward the teen couldn’t help the cute smile that tugged at the edge of her lips as she faced her sensei, purposely looking away from her ‘senpai’, “Sensei,” the woman’s grey eyes turned towards her at the sound of her voice, “The Raikage is most likely in a meeting, so…” blue-green eyes quickly glanced at the little girl, still pouting, before facing her sensei’s hard grey eyes, “perhaps she’d like to… um…” absentmindedly she scratched the side of her face as she realized saying ‘take a tour of the village’ wouldn’t be very effective, the child was blind so it wasn’t like she could ‘see’ anything, and getting ‘fresh air’ seemed just as ineffective as they’d been outside at least a week now… the grey haired teen couldn’t help but tap her lip cutely, trying to come up with a good ‘excuse’ for her sensei to just take the girl with her, since she was _obviously_ more comfortable with the white assassin then herself.

It seemed the Assassin had _some_ sense of sympathy, as she halted her student’s floundering with the barest of sighs, turning back the way she intended and perhaps absently tugging her sleeve closer to her, “If Lord Raikage is no longer indisposed by the time we return, send a message,” and with that the teen was dismissed.

Mabui still bowed, both as a courtesy and to hide the smirk that was threatening to rise on her lips, “Of course, Sensei.” With one last glance at the two as they walked the other way, Mabui turned around, bent on taking as _long_ as possible to finally inform the Raikage of his ‘special guest’. It may have been her imagination, but for a second while she looked at them, Mabui could have sworn the little girl glanced back at her, brows brought up in the center apologetically over her bandana with a small smile on her face, obviously grateful and not meaning anything personal by her actions.

The chuunin assistant-in-training could only grin to herself, knowing _exactly_ how the girl must have felt. – _Who wouldn’t want some alone time with their **mom** after being gone so long?_ \- the teen was assuming, of course, but she’d watched how the two acted on the road back to the village and the only other time she’d seen her dismissive sensei so ‘attentive’ was around her son… and Mabui was convinced there was _A LOT_ her sensei wasn’t telling her about her ‘totally platonic’ relationship with the Raikage.

So she wouldn’t be surprised if her mental jape was one hundred percent true. She tried to not cackle evilly to herself as she passed the glass doors into the Raikage’s tower.

Her ‘Senpai’ owed her, that was for sure…

Whatever her Kouhai thought, Yorihi could still see the younger woman as she’d turned down the bridge towards her Father’s tower. Unconsciously the little girl bit her lip, her focus leaving her oddly giddy junior, as she held onto her Teacher’s sleeve. Truthfully, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to see her Father, she did, she missed him and her Uncle and Sister as much as she did her Teacher, but… her small pale hands tightened on the rough fabric of the white woman’s travel kimono, still biting her lip. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see her Father… she just didn’t want to leave her Teacher.

The young girl knew her emotions were going haywire, she’d been keeping them in the whole time they had traveled. The young girl held nothing against her new Kouhai, she just hadn’t expected a ‘stranger’ when her Teacher retrieved her… hadn’t expected to walk in through the front gate of the village at mid-morning, those two chuunin eyeing her curiously… hadn’t expected to walk through the whole village, civilians and shinobi alike watching them, paying their respects to her Teacher and Kouhai… just _barely_ ignoring her presence…

She’d been pushing back the painful wave of emotion suddenly being near someone she cared so much for to keep whatever stares or notice away… wanting only to see them… that now, now that it was just her and Kemui-sama she almost had no idea what to do. Her hand gripped tight on the sleeve as she bit hard enough on her lip she was honestly surprised there wasn’t blood-

There was a slight tug on the sleeve as the white woman untangled her hands from them, moving without looking as she adjusted her arm to place her hand on the small girl’s ink-blue hair. Yorihi seemed to jolt at the contact, almost resetting as everything cleared from her mind as the woman’s pale hand traveled down her rough hair to grab on her outer shoulder, fingers barely glancing the top stone-band as with an iron grip the wolf woman softly tugged the girl closer to her, draping her under the long sleeve she’d been holding, covering and shielding her from everything else.

 _Yorihi_ did not cry, she refused to acknowledge the unfamiliar sting at the edge of her covered eyes nor the unconscious sniffle as both her small hands fiddled with the hem of the woman’s long sleeve.

Kemui didn’t have to look at the girl to know exactly how she felt; she remembered a pitiful look on a certain blonde boy’s face after an overdue absence, the bawling and tear-filled black eyes her son showed every time she was late… even that ridiculous pout on a certain large blonde Oni’s face when she’d come back long ago… and she remembered how she’d felt, so choked up with words. – _Too many to say, not one making it out…_ \- there was a soft barely-there grin picking at the edge of her lips and she knew if her Lord’s daughter focused at all would probably be able to see it.

“How about we find you something more appropriate to wear?” the older woman’s voice was soft, oddly so to Yorihi’s ears.

To the young girl her Teacher had always had this softer tone, something hidden under the biting steel she showed to others, that was only present in reference to her, so to _hear_ that tone so open and broad was a bit of a shocker to the young girl. She blinked, her eye brows moving above her bandana as she was tempted to turn towards the woman and just stare, not that she couldn’t anyway but still…

Despite the obvious, the look on the girl’s face must have been obvious, or the Assassin just knew what she was thinking as a light, barely-there smile crept at the edge of the woman’s lips and her hand on the small girl’s shoulder tugged, “Come, let’s get you something more appropriate to present to your father.”

“Mm,” Without a thought the young girl in the bandana gave the white woman an affirmative nod, her free hand clutching the woman’s robe and neither caring in the least.

\-----

When her Teacher had presented the option to get more ‘appropriate’ clothes, she had honestly no idea where they would go. At first she thought perhaps her Teacher’s room at the Tower but that would require going ‘back’… then the oddly sinking thought passed through Yorihi’s mind that maybe in the past four years her Teacher had moved out, or maybe she’d never really lived there to begin with, she’d never _been_ to her Teacher’s dwelling, never even thought about it really, she just assumed as all children do.

Then she’d remembered there were stores, so perhaps one of them was their destination…

That thought too had been shattered quickly enough as the white woman had led them into what appeared to be a residential structure; a large spiraling tower that reminded her of a bee hive, one of many she’d seen at the edges of the village as they entered. The girl could tell nothing about these buildings was commercial, there weren’t any stalls or crowds like the few she’d seen on the large hanging terraces, instead they just seemed like lots and lots of rooms with numbers on the doors facing out to the spiraling hallway on the outside of the structure with the only thing between the doors and the elements being wall high glass. In the Raikage’s Tower the windows were on the outside of private rooms, with few halls appearing like this and she wondered for the difference in structure, maybe it was ‘safer’ this way?

They had traveled the outside hall for a while, Yorihi keeping her sight to herself not wanting to spy on anyone as they passed many closed doors, it actually took more effort than she realized since she was already using her eyes ability to see through things just to ‘see’ at all, but it was an interesting test of her abilities. Already she had figured out some rooms had special seals that made it difficult to see through, others not at all, in fact the door her white haired Teacher stopped in front of was one of those ‘rare’ doors she couldn’t see through. The girl tilted her head in thought at the oddity.

Kemui had removed one hand from her tucked sleeves and lightly rapped on the door with the back of her knuckles. As they waited Yorihi looked around; listening, sensing, smelling everything within the direct vicinity. This door was up at least two-thirds of the building and it was strangely quite compared to the lower floors, perhaps they everyone was out? She could almost feel Bachiko growling low and raising his fur, apparently finding the place dangerous, even if no one could see him.

Whatever further thoughts and observations the ‘blind’ girl had was lost as the door in front of her Teacher was thrown open. Kemui didn’t move an inch, seemingly bored, but Yorihi couldn’t help the _slight_ jump at the sudden sound and rustling of someone else…

“Oba-chan!!” came a rather brash voice, the smaller girl wouldn’t exactly call it ‘loud’ but Bachiko had lowered his ears and hers felt like ringing.

Immediately the small girl’s focus went to the newcomer, remembering to not move her head so much as follow her ears. It was another girl, a few years older than her but obviously younger than her Kouhai wearing rather dark clothes, a skirt with tight shorts underneath in dark-dark-almost-black red and a faded black collared shirt. Her skin was darker than her Teacher’s, but again less than Mabui’s, but as her hidden eyes came to the older girl’s face something sparked recognition. That wide cocky grin and black eyes were unmistakably the same as the woman who was brash enough to call herself Yorihi’s grandmother, but the girl’s hair was the wrong color, a dark reddish brown instead of Gakari-san’s pure black, and held up in two high pigtails.

The girl’s hidden white eyes blinked… then she finally registered what the girl had said.

Reddish brown brows lowered as the girl’s black eyes took in the taller white woman, “Wait… Kaa-chan’s not with you?”

Against her will an edge picked up on Kemui’s face as she gave a bare sigh, “No, you’re mother should still be working,” the flat look on the girl’s face told the white woman just how much she believed that, which again Kemui had to repress the smirk rising on her face, “I’ve just come to borrow some clothing,” the white haired woman turned enough to reveal Yorihi to the stranger.

Again the younger girl tensed, feeling awkward under that black eyed stare. Absently she raised her hand and waved, “H-hi?”

Black eyes blinked, face falling flat before glancing back to her ‘aunt’, “You really have a thing about kidnapping children don’t you?”

Grey eyes stared flatly at the girl while Yorihi’s jaw just dropped. Who was this girl who thought she could talk to her Teacher like that!!

Neither got a chance to reply as the reddish-brunette stepped out, grabbed Yorihi’s held up hand and shook it firmly, that oddly familiar cocky grin in place on her lightly tanned features, “Good to meet you, welcome to the family!” then, again, before either could say anything the older girl dragged Yorihi in the door, “Come on!! Let’s get you out of those rags!!” the young preteen was giving a face splitting grin and Yorihi, having very little experience with anyone close to her age, had no idea what to do besides follow the girl. As the two started ascending the stairs in the large apartment the reddish-brunette threw over her shoulder with a wave as the two heard the door close, presumably Kemui having entered shutting it, “Oh yea!” the preteen paused to lean over the railing as the Assassin calmly walked below, still holding Yorihi’s hand with the other, “He’s in the den, should be taking a nap…”

The white haired woman just gave a curt nod without stopping, assumedly going towards this ‘den’.

Yorihi could only blink as ink-blue brows rose over her bandana, curious what her Teacher was doing… but a quick jerk on her hand told her she’d have to wait for that answer.

“Come on, newbie!!” the older girl continued to drag the smaller girl up to their destination.

Yorihi found she had little choice in the matter, sure she _could_ easily break out of the girl’s grasp, and Bachiko was suggesting more than one not-so-nice thing feeling the girl was _too friendly_ in this situation, but felt it would be the wrong move. The girl wasn’t threatening her, sure dragging her around, but not in a cruel way, with a purpose sure, but not like she wanted to hurt her… and Kemui-sama obviously didn’t have a problem with her. – _And she looks like Baba-Gakari…_ \- that was probably the main reason she hadn’t acted, despite all the invisible Bakeneko wanted, but she remembered the black hair and eyed desk clerk as someone apparently trustworthy, at least to her white haired Teacher. So this girl must have been similar right?

“Here we are!” the older girl was grinning as she opened the door and hauled Yorihi in behind her. It was another room, smaller than her own back at the Tower if she remembered correctly, but it had a bed, closet that was open with all manner of clothing and ‘ _stuff_ ’ falling out of it and a dresser. The reddish-brunette finally released Yorihi as she wandered to the overstuffed closet, throwing random bits of clothing behind her without care, apparently deciding they weren’t what she was looking for…

The supposedly ‘blind’ girl took the chance to look around, Bachiko slipping onto her shoulders in his corporeal form sniffing about with his ears back, apparently not liking the place. Ink-blue brows lowered as she glared at him for the random comments she could feel him making through their bond. With a final snort the ghost cat hopped off her shoulder onto the dresser, fiddling with things and swishing his long forked tails. Yorihi kept glaring at him, even if no one could see it aside from her lowered brows, she knew he could feel it and they were the guests here, they shouldn’t be rude.

Not that that stopped her from looking at everything. Their ‘host’ was apparently a very messy person, scrolls, ninja equipment, clothes, belts and various other things strewn about the room and a menagerie of chaos the little girl was honestly surprised the older one could find _anything_ in this place. Part of her obviously found it hilarious as a corner picked up at the edge of her lips smiling. She’d never been in someone else’s room, so while she kept hers _mostly_ clean out of habit it was hilarious to her to see something so… so… messy.

The older girl had apparently found a way further into her closet, as Yorihi could only hear her further disapprovals of ‘nope’, ‘too big’, ‘oooh I forgot I had this!’ and other such things while _still_ tossing things out carelessly. The grin didn’t leave the pale girl’s lips.

A scrapping sound caught in her ears and her sight focused on it, apparently Bachiko was pawing at something on the dresser. The ghost cat had sat back, waving his tails about as he lazily pawed a hanging garment off one of the sides of the dresser mirror. Curious, Yorihi stepped forward and grabbed the thing.

It was a headband.

Dark brows rose as the younger girl ran her hands over the fabric and metal, her fingers trailing the design etched into the metal, the insignia of Kumo. She could recognize this girl was older than her, but did this mean she was…

“Oh hey, I see you found that!” Yorihi’s ears twitched as she turned towards the girl’s cheery voice, a handful of odd clothes in her arms, apparently having found what she’d been looking for. She was giving a somewhat more earnest cocky grin as her black eyes laid on the younger girl, “oh right,” a small embarrassed chuckle, “Forgot, blind,” she gave a light shrug, “You know what that is?”

- _Of course I know what it is…_ \- was what Yorihi _wanted_ to say, instead she ran her hands over the insignia again, feeling the metal and fabric, “It’s a hitae-ate, right?” again that more earnest grin was her response, as the girl moved to set the pile of clothes on the bed. Yorihi tapped her fingers on the headband again, biting the inside of her lip before finally asking, “Is it yours?”

Again, the older girl was smiling as she walked back over to Yorihi, took the headband from her gently before placing it on her forehead and tying it under her pigtails, “You bet!” the cocky grin was back for a second before the girl looked at herself in the mirror, readjusting the thing so her bangs weren’t trapped under it, “Man this thing looks weird, I’ve got to see if they have a different color…” black eyes turned back to the younger girl, obviously about to ask her opinion, but Yorihi could tell the moment those black eyes laid on the blue bandana around her eyes she wouldn’t bother. An embarrassed look and apologetic chuckle left her throat, “Not that you could help me…”

The ‘blind’ girl tried really hard not to pout, though she would agree, the normal cream color of the Kumo Hitae-ate did look kind of silly on the lightly tanned girl’s forehead between reddish brown bangs and black eyes. She shrugged, not sure what else to do in this situation, “Are you a shinobi?”

The older girl scratched the side of her face giving a nervous chuckle, “Well… only a genin.”

A dark blue brow rose at that. – _what’s so wrong with that?_ \- she mused but didn’t quite say much else.

The older girl chuckled at the look on the younger girl’s partially covered face, “c’mon,” she spun the blind girl around, directing her towards the bed and pile of ‘decent’ clothes from the abyss that was her closet, “supposed to be getting you outta these rags,” a tan hand flicked at one of the rough dark blue shoulders, “seriously, did you fight a bear in this things?”

Another dark blue brow quirked, the girl’s head tilting slightly not getting it was a joke, “no, just a lot of bats,” there was an involuntary shutter Yorihi was positive the older girl noticed, “lots and lots of bats…”

A snort was her response as again the older girl gave her a pat on the back, directing her towards the clothes, “sure, why not?” a dramatic wave of the hand only the reddish brunette thought she could see, “Blind girl meet bats, have at it!” she laughed.

Yorihi was beginning to question her Teacher’s taste in ‘people’ seeing as she was almost positive this genin was a bit _off_ …

The only ‘response’ Yorihi gave was keeping her brow raised above her bandana, the older girl obviously noticed as her coal black eyes just stuck on her flatly before stating equally flat, “Oh just put the clothes on…” the older girl flitted the other side of the bed, waving her hand, again the weird gesture Yorihi wondered if the older girl realized she could actually _see_ it, “I swear, none of you have an ounce of humor…”

Yorihi kept her brow raised, face neutral at about head level with the seated girl, even if she wasn’t looking _directly_ at her as her sight focused on the pile of clothes on the bed; a few shirts, some shorts, one or two skirts like the girl wore, and undergarments she wasn’t really familiar with… absently the ‘blind’ girl reached out towards the clothing, making a show of feeling out the fabrics and sorting out a pair of tight shorts and undershirt made of the same dark material, if nothing else they’d make her feel more comfortable getting in a fight. Her old kimono wasn’t as big as she remembered, and the sleeves had been ripped off due to her training along with other holes and scraps in the rough material but she’d still rather wear it than anything else the girl had… it was the right color after all. Then she came upon the odd undergarments, picked one up that was oddly ‘poofy’, squeezing the cups between her fingers and raising her brow rather obviously while scrunching up her face, having no idea what it was…

Apparently the look on her face was funny as the reddish-brunette started laughing, Yorihi’s following pout didn’t help one bit. With a lingering snort the older girl just smirked cockily and pointed at her, failing to realize the gesture was useless on the ‘blind’ girl, “I _had_ to throw at least one of those in there,” another snicker poorly hidden, “seriously, how old are you?” if Yorihi paid attention to her finger she noticed it was pointing at her chest, “You’re already developing, I’m jealous…”

Dark blue brow rose higher, what part of the girl’s face that wasn’t hidden was scrunched up more and underneath the bandana her white eyes were blinking, “Developed?” involuntarily she squeezed the garment again, “I’m ten… or so I’ve been told…”

Another snicker, “So you’ve been told?” that cocky smirk was really starting to get annoying, then there was a rather dramatic sigh from the older genin, “But damn… only ten?” absently her hands were making some gesture in front of her chest that Yorihi did not get, it looked like she was cupping it or something, Bachiko was snickering at for some reason, “And already that developed?” another deep sigh and more snickering in the blind girl’s ear from a certain invisible cat, “they’re gonna be huge…” was she crying?

Another unseen blink as Yorihi felt she was seriously missing something, “They?”

Suddenly the older girl stood up, fist raised and a fire appeared in her eyes, “I will _not_ be disheartened!!” was she growling? “I swear, I will have a chest bigger than Kaa-chan’s when I’m fully matured!!”

Yorihi and Bachiko stared, this sudden urge for sweat to drop down their necks nervously…

There was suddenly a hand pointing in the blind girl’s face, she didn’t flinch, “I just realized I don’t know your name,” a red-brownish brow quirked, “Just that you’re another kid Oba-chan probably kidnapped…”

Yorihi glared flatly at the finger pointing in her face but only the curt frown was obvious, “She didn’t kidnap me,” something was itching in the back of her mind but she purposely ignored it, turning back to her chosen garments, forgoing that whatever-it-was that caused the older girl to get all weird, “but my name is Tenkyuu Yorihi…” which to put on first?

In the peripheries of the smaller girl’s spherical vision she watched a puzzled look come over the girl, her black eyes blinked as if registering that information, “Yorihi… Yorihi…” she mumbled, shifting into a musing pose as she ignored the smaller girl who swiftly slipped on the new underclothes, “Why do I know that name?” she caught the junior girl shrug as she pulled the black formfitting shirt and slid the top of her ratty kimono over it. Coal black eyes watched as she unclipped the belt holding the large swords and set it on the bed for the second it took her to slip the tight shorts on underneath before grabbing  it again and refastening her kimono closed with it, something about those large amounts of swords registering to the genin, “Hmm…”

“You didn’t tell me your name,” Yorihi cocked her head towards the genin, finishing tying her belt and moving around, seeing how much the new tight underclothes inhibited her movements; it wasn’t much and would be easy to compensate for. She jumped twice to test the weight, not enough to bother her, then moved to adjust the sleeves under her armbands, they looked silly bulging out over them.

Black eyes blinked, “I didn’t?” a curt nod was her only response, causing the older girl to chuckle nervously, scratching the side of her face with that cocky grin back, “Sorry about that, I forget sometimes,” the only response she got was the blind girl turning back to her, more her ear listening for her response, but her black eyes could see her brows quirking as a kind of response, “Gakushin Mei,” she held her hand out, the blind girl, Yorihi, noticing the movement but not seeming to get the gesture so Mei reached out and grabbed her other hand before embracing it with her first in a firm shake, “Pleasure to meet you, Yorihi-chan!”

Yorihi blushed at the friendly and unabashed contact, “Y-you too,” she shook the older girl’s hand again, who was still smiling. It felt embarrassing introducing herself to people, “Thank you, Mei-chan?” the blind girl didn’t know if that was the ‘right’ honorific to address her, but the older genin seemed to only grin, apparently pleased, “f-for the clothes I mean…”

Mei finally let her hand go, waving off her thanks, “No problem,” she shrugged a shoulder towards the closet, “Kaa-chan keeps telling me I need to clean out my closet anyway,” that oddly earnest cocky grin was back, she may have been embarrassed, “I’ve got stuff in there from what I was five, probably younger, I need to get rid of some of it,” she scratched her cheek again, glancing at the ceiling, “Probably why Oba-chan brought you here,” black eyes landed on the younger girl again, “knew I’d have something that’d fit you, hehe!” she wondered over to the closet again, throwing somethings aside before grabbing a pair of ninja-sandals, “These’ll probably fit you.”

“I-I don’t-” Yorihi started before the black sandals were thrown her way and she instinctively caught them, then a hand was on her shoulder and she was forced to not look at the girl’s face directly.

“Don’t worry about it,” she was waving her other hand dismissively, “like I said, need to clean stuff out.” With a light push they were headed back out the door, “C’mon, I’m sure Oba-chan’s waiting and I bet Shiro-chan would love to meet you!”

As they headed towards the stairs all Yorihi could do was cock her brows confused, “Shiro-chan?”

As they made it to the landing the two girls picked up other voices, one Yorihi immediately recognized:

“Reki-san, this is _beyond_ inappropriate! I had my orders from Sensei-!!” that was her Kouhai. – _what’s she doing here?_ -

“Come on Mabui, you know Kaa-san won’t listen,” that was a deeper male voice she didn’t know.

“Yea kid, you worry too much you’ll get a wrinkle on that cute face of yours,” _that_ was a voice she _definitely_ recognized, paired with she was sure that familiar cocky grin Mei had. – _Baba-Gakari?_ \- unknowingly a smile picked at the little girl’s mouth.

“I _have ORDERS_!!” it was at this point both Mabui and the owner of the male voice had made it to the bottom of the stairs and well within Yorihi and Mei’s line of sight. Mabui looked furious, while the young man next to her, looking close to her age with brown hair, the same skin tone as Mei and probably the same black eyes, was busy putting his sandals on before handing the assistant-in-training her boots. The grey haired teen had a scowl on her face for all of a second before grabbing the things and tugging them on quickly, then went right back to pointing and yelling at someone down the hall, “This is _YOUR_ responsibility!! Not _MINE!!”_ she growled again before the brown haired ninja quickly tugged her by the elbow and pulled her out the front door.

It wasn’t a moment later, and about two steps down, that a tan woman with a tattoo on one shoulder, black hair, glasses and a devilish grin all but _skipped_ to the landing, sticking her head out the door and yelling out, “I EXPECT GRANDKIDS WHEN YOU GET BACK!!”

Oddly enough Mei sighed next to Yorihi, tugging her further down the stairs while the younger girl just blushed, “Kaa-chan, you know it doesn’t work like that…” there was an obvious groan to her voice.

Reki was still leaning out the door, but the tone in her voice pretty much told how much she was grinning, “HEY!! ITS OKAY TO FLIP YOUR MOM OFF!!” there was a pause and a deep sigh next to the blind girl before Reki seemed to take a step back, the grin was way too obvious on her face as she waved, still shouting, “SHE’S A KEEPER!!”

There was another groan from the younger Gakushin as she rolled her black eyes, “She flipped you off didn’t she Kaa-san?”

Reki turned around with that wide grin, absently flicking the door closed while she was at it, “Of course, your brother needs a woman like that…”

Mei scoffed, “They’re only friends, Kaa-san, I don’t think you’re meddling is helping…”

“We’ll see about that,” it was somewhat funny watching as the black haired and eyed woman raised her hand in a familiar gesture as if to grab a cigarette from her mouth, only to scowl when she realized there wasn’t one before her equally black eyes laid on her daughter, “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

“Translation,” Mei easily quipped as her and Yorihi reached the bottom, her mom’s eyes following behind her glasses, “You just want to smoke…”

“Leave me to my vices brat,” the older woman smirked a half-cocked grin before laying a hand on her daughter’s head and rubbing viciously earning a yelp from the girl. It was after a minor glare between two pairs of narrow black eyes that she finally glanced up enough to see the girl her daughter had been escorting down, looking extremely bewildered with the way her blue-black brows rose over that familiar bandana, “Well I’ll be,” she took a step closer, looking straight at Yorihi, “Guess that uppity girl was telling the truth,” the older woman placed both hands on her bare hips, an oddly sincere smirk forming on her lips if still cocky, “Good to see you back, Yorihi-chan…” and she too mussed up the girl’s ink-blue hair just like she’d done with her daughter.

Yorihi stiffened, scrunching up her shoulders to her ears, she didn’t need her special sight to see the grin on the older woman’s face it was plain as day in her voice. Underneath the teasing tone was something earnest and honest, she was truly glad to see her, it caused the younger girl to blush, “I-it’s good to see you too… Baba,” like when first addressing Mei, she didn’t know if the older woman would be fine with her address, she scrunched up, feeling the burning on her ears as she waited for the black haired woman’s response.

There was that obvious smirk on Reki’s face, like she picked up something that was ‘off’, “Good to _see_ me huh?” absently the woman’s hand reached up and rubbed her nose in a pitiful attempted to hide the _obvious_ joking grin.

The embarrassment immediately left Yorihi’s face, her lips forming a pouting frown, “It’s a figure of speech Baba,” she _tried_ not to snort her nose like Bachiko did when something was obviously wrong, but it had become a habit thanks to four years in darkness with the damn cat.

The older woman had something of an approving grin, before she let out an obvious laugh and walked down the hall. The younger girls had two different reactions, Mei just sighed deeply, far too used to dealing with her mother, and Yorihi was still bristling like her cat. Both ended up following the cackling desk clerk anyway.

“You shouldn’t tease them so much,” was the first thing they heard walking into the den. Yorihi froze hearing the soft tone in her Teacher’s voice, a glance at the other two showed no sign of reaction, like it was normal to them.

“Tch,” the black haired woman walked out from in front of the two girls, one hand on her tattooed hip the other fiddling with her vest, “You question my parenting and you’re letting him play with _that_?” it seemed Reki finally managed to snag at least one cigarette out of the carton in her top pocket, putting it to her lips but doing nothing else, even if it was pretty obvious her hand was itching to grab the lighter in the adjacent pocket, as she lazily flopped down on the comfy couch in the back.

Yorihi’s sensitive ears easily caught the barely-there sigh from her Teacher, a brow quirking. Then she bothered to actually _look_ at what the older women were talking about. Her Teacher was seated on the sofa opposite Reki, leaning over with an almost amused look on her face as she watched a young boy, no more than three, with white hair tossing a knife, grinning wide as he kept intent black eyes on the blade. He was tossing and catching the knife in a series of flicks meant to familiarize the eye-hand coordination to catching and using the knife as a weapon, it was a simple exercise Yorihi recognized because Tougemichi had her do it during her training.

Yorihi couldn’t help but stare, caught by instinct to pay attention to the blade.

“Its blunted,” was the soft quip from the white haired woman.

Yorihi stepped around the sofa quietly to gain a line of sight for her teacher’s face, looking ‘through’ and trying to interpret it from behind would have been somewhat stomach turning and she doubted she could work her eyes that finely without anyone else noticing the quirk of her chakra… yet. She noticed that while the quip was directed at Reki, her Teacher’s grey eyes never left the boy. Inadvertently a dark brow quirked over her bandana, even when dismissive, Kemui-sama always at _least_ glanced at those she spoke to, usually very quickly or subtly, gauging possible threats, Yorihi always noticed. But this time…

White eyes blinked behind the blue bandana as her Teacher seemed to pause momentarily, as if finally noticing something. The woman’s pale face turned just the barest but Yorihi noticed, those grey eyes looked at her, directly in her covered eyes, and there was something there the young girl didn’t know how to interpret. Her mouth opened slightly, either in surprise or to say something she didn’t know, but the moment her Teacher noticed the woman’s grey eyes were back on the boy. Like it never happened…

“Honestly, Oba-chan,” Mei growled as she leaned over the sofa near Kemui, narrow black eyes on the white haired boy who’d finally stopped flipping the knife, “It’s bad enough I worry about him juggling things he could potentially swallow,” a deep groan as she ran one hand through her bangs, “the second you’re back you give him a knife!”

“Its blunted,” there was _not_ a smirk wanting to pick at the pale woman’s lips, Yorihi had to bite her inner-lip to not laugh.

Reki was openly scowling across from them, though her bored black eyes weren’t on the _not_ snickering woman in front of her keeping her eyes on the young boy, who was looking around the room blinking confused, and right looking right at her own daughter, “ _‘Honestly’_?,” the older woman snort, waving around her not-lit cigarette, “Who taught you to sound like that?” it was finally then that she bothered to look down at the little boy, who happened to be staring at her with his equally black eyes. Reki just frowned, “And really, you’re _worried_ about this brat?” the boy smiled at her and Yorihi could tell the older woman was forcing the frown to stay in place.

Kemui didn’t say anything about the way Reki was looking at her son, but Yorihi could tell it was harder than the previous glance, on edge and protective. The supposedly ‘blind’ girl was probably the only one that noticed it.

Mei gave a familiar scowl at her lounging mother, “ _Someone_ should be!”

That flat look crossed Reki’s face again, her daughter drawing all her attention at that moment as she just flatly, boredly, and methodically just stared at her daughter. At first Yorihi didn’t get what was going on… then a small motion caught her attention, when the blind girl focused her attention, she realized it was Mei. The younger Gakushin was trying adamantly to keep the look with her mother, it wasn’t working. Where Reki was perfectly still, seemingly conjuring an aura of boredom and nonchalance that was oddly disturbing if Yorihi let her mind consider it too long, the junior one was fidgeting uneasily. She _was_ trying… just failing miserably.

After a good solid minute of the stare down the reddish-brunette just snapped, growling as she turned heel, threw her hands up and stomped down the hall, “I’m gonna go clean my room!!” it wasn’t long before they hear angry stomping up the stairs and finally and angry slam.

Yorihi’s eyebrows were raised while Kemui didn’t seemed to notice at all, the boy was just puzzled looking around. A small pout formed on his pale face as his small white brows lowered before turning his black eyes the Assassin, “Kaa-san?”

It was like someone dropped an entire roll of explosive tags, Yorihi could almost laugh. The two older women weren’t very expressive, and Yorihi was positive that if she hadn’t spent the last four years in darkness with an old blind man more guarded then them, she probably wouldn’t have noticed their reactions. Reki’s black eyes narrowed even more, the edges of her mouth pulling down but not fully into a frown. Kemui was even less expressive, perhaps the lack of anything was a sign, Tougemichi did that a lot, though she did glance again, longer this time. Her grey eyes had that same look she didn’t understand… but there was a softness, something she was so used to it was only now she realized such a look didn’t deserve to be on the face of an Assassin. –‘We _are different’… right Tougemichi?_ -

A smile formed on the younger girl’s lips as she stepped forward, the only sign of apprehension on the girl was the unconscious grip she held on her top left sword, “Kemui-sama,” her voice was low, but enough for the other three to pick it up, both Reki’s and the boy’s black eyes joined her Teacher’s grey ones on her, “You haven’t introduced me to…” her voice broke, not sure what to say.

It didn’t matter, as a small pleasant smile touched her Teacher’s lips, “My son,” her grey eyes turned back to the boy, meeting his black ones, it was obvious he was confused but he was smart enough to understand the cues from his mother. Kemui closed her eyes momentarily, pleasant smile still on her features as she nodded towards the ‘older’ girl.

Yorihi thought it was funny, how the little boy seemed to freeze up slightly, visibly swallow then turn towards her, looking ‘ ** _up_** ’ at her as he tightened his lips trying to stand straight, if not obviously spooked. She noticed his small hands fist, one around the _blunted_ knife he’d been practicing with, “Y-Yokan S-S-Su-”

“Louder,” she didn’t know where it came from honestly, she felt a sudden sense of déjà vu watching this boy, this little boy far younger than her try and introduce himself at the prompting of his mother. Her voice wasn’t even that loud, just loud compared to the silence apart from his stuttering, and something about the calm sternness reminded her of her Father. Yorihi stepped forward, one hand resting on her sword, as the boy seemed to shutter under her hidden gaze, he couldn’t see her eyes, but he knew she was facing him, focused on him, and despite himself he was staring right at her standing up straight. – _Better than me…_ \- it took more effort than she realized to keep the smirk from her face but she managed, “Keep your head up,” he kept his gaze despite a small tremble, his lips pressed tightly, “Keep your shoulders back,” it was funny to watch him visibly pull his shoulders back, eyes still on her, “And stand up straight!!” this time she did yell, and he did jump, but he stood straighter then he had previously.

Yorihi couldn’t help the grin that spread on her face, it must have looked frightening as the boy shivered again but kept his eyes on her, “Always present yourself at your best! Never back down from someone, even if they are your Kage,” she could see his eyes widen, probably jumping to conclusions she didn’t bother to dissuade him from, “don’t show your fear, stand proud, and speak loud!” at this point she summoned the image of her Father in her mind, tall, proud, powerful and confident, a giant that smiled and laughed like roaring thunder… and she looked every bit his daughter, “I am Tenkyuu Yorihi, Daughter of the Raikage!”

Vaguely she noticed Reki was blinking, too stunned to do anything else, while her Teacher too was staring, but not so much in shock… there was something else, but for a moment she thought it was pride.

The boy was staring, utterly mystified and spellbound, for a moment she wondered if she looked like that after her Father made his big introduction, “Now,” her voice held that confident edge as she stood in front of the boy, barely a foot apart and just her head facing down at him, he may not know it, but her eyes were solely on him, “Tell me who you are…”

Those tiny white brows furrowed, his lips pressed tight in a determination as he gripped his hands tightly at his sides, black eyes wide and sparkling and solely on her. He took a deep breath, flaring his nose, “I’m Yokan Sutego, and my mother is the best Assassin there is!” his lips ended in an obvious challenging pout.

Reki was the first to break, laughing wholeheartedly at how _serious_ two children could be.

Kemui gave that familiar barely-there sigh, sounding like this was all silly, but Yorihi could see all the tension leave her in an instant. Her son was accepted by her Student, all was right with the world.

And Yorihi? She gave a grin that would make her Father proud, before laying a hand on the boy’s head, ruffling up his white hair and saying lightly, “Of course she is…” she could feel more then she could see the boy flush, he was so young, and cute, and it took her a while to remember she was the same age, looking up to a big Oni and declaring who she was… perhaps it wasn’t as hard for him as it was her, but it was a start.

“WHAT THE HECK IS ALL THAT YELLING?!” they all heard from the stairs, Mei, obviously, but the younger Gakushin didn’t bother to come down any further.

Yorihi laughed, so did Sutego, as Reki went to deal with her daughter, and Kemui just sat by, watching with a passive smile. After things quieted upstairs and the two children calmed down the Assassin chose to get up, standing next to her son and gazing at him passively, “It’s time for us to go…”

Yorihi watched as the boy pressed his lips together, trying not to pout, she knew exactly how he felt, “When will you be back?” he tried not to let it show, but she could hear the hurt in his voice. – _But he will be strong…_ \- something picked at the edge of her lips. – _Like his mom_ -

“Not long,” surprisingly the woman reached out and touched the side of the boy’s head, drawing him close for a moment. He just nodded into her kimono, the pout finally starting to win.

Yorihi’s brows scrunched up in the middle, she didn’t like anyone looking sad… or alone, it was a terrible thing not having someone next to you that you cared about, she was grateful she always had Bachi-

“Oh!” both white haired people glanced at her exclamation, then raised a brow at her sudden grin, well her Teacher did, Sutego just tilted his head confused. Yorihi looked in his direction, and he looked right back into her bandana, “I have a friend, would you mind watching him for a little while?” the white haired boy’s head tilted more, but she only grinned more, she could already hear the cat complaining, “He’s really nice but kind of shy,” oh yea, she could feel him glaring in the back of her mind.

The boy looked interested, tapping his lip not sure what to do, for a moment his black eyes glanced to his mother and she gave the smallest of shrugs, eyeing her Student curiously. When Sutego glanced back Yorihi was still smiling at him, it made him feel a bit more confident, “O-okay?” a small bit.

The ink-blue haired girl didn’t see to do anything besides grin, then all of a sudden she leaned her head towards her shoulder. Sutego’s black eyes followed the movement, and suddenly he saw something like black fire walking along her shoulders, going from the indicated side to the other, then down her arm as she held it out before finally hopping to the ground and taking a seat. It looked like a cat, but the boy had never seen one outside of a book, and it was weird with flaming fur and long ears, but most of all was its strange ‘tails’, well almost ‘tails’ they were still joined at the base as one and it was a pretty big cat…

“His name is Bachiko,” the girl said, still grinning at the boy, bringing his attention back to her, “I call him Bachi-chan though,” for some reason that made him smile, and it made Yorihi feel better and completely ignoring the cat’s grumbling, “So take care of him Sutego-kun?”

The boy blanched for a moment, looking from the older girl to the cat, not sure which was safer, before finally sticking with the narrowly glaring cat and nodding his head, “O-okay…” awkwardly he reached out to pet the odd blue-black cat, its fur looking like wispy fire. He had no idea the glaring contest going on between his mother and the beast, her grey eyes sharp and warning while the cat’s vibrant blue’s were glaring for an entirely different reason. Not that it mattered; he was soon crouched down petting the cat with an amused fascinated smile of a three year old.

Yorihi left the two on the ground, deftly moving out of the den and towards the hall leading towards the door. It wasn’t until she’d actually left, remembering to put on the sandals Mei gave her and closing the door, that she realized her Teacher had followed her out, quietly and without a word following one pace behind. A fierce blush ran across the girl’s face as she finally stopped, hiked her shoulders up to ears not sure what to expect from her weird little introduction, she doubted her Teacher had any idea why she said all that, “Kemui-sama, I-”

“For a moment,” the woman said quietly as she passed with her even calm pace, “I thought I was hearing your Father again,” as she passed Yorihi couldn’t help but noticed the blatant smile on the older woman’s face, “Back when he was a kid…”

Yorihi just blushed, and decided that was all she needed to do. The Assassin seemed to agree, accepting her quickly following as they made their way back to the Raikage’s Tower in silence. One too amused, the other too embarrassed to say anything…

… even if she was proud of herself.

\-----

**Okaerinasai – Welcome Home**


	2. Seriously Not Serious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PROVE YOUR WORTH!!

What are the thoughts of a god that looks down on the land? What are the thoughts of a king as he sits on his throne? What are the thoughts of a demon as he slowly opens his eyes to gaze at his court…

The Raikage slowly opened his beady black eyes as he sat back on his throne in the large receiving room in his tower, hands tented in front of his face with elbows firm on the armrests. The features of his distinct face were muted, solid stone and hardly readable. With dark skin and hair as bright as lightning on a frame that would make an Oni proud he was a strong, formidable and imposing man.

To Yorihi, he was her Father…

As she walked quietly and hidden behind her Teacher the ‘blind’ girl took in the scene around her; this was her Father’s throne room, it was where he gave her a name, where she watched those men with white eyes try to look down on him and the rest of her family, it was where she decided exactly who she was and where she belonged. She may not have known it at the time, but the moment her Father picked her up and named her she had decided to emulate this tall and foreboding man.

He was, after all, _her_ Father.

“Kemui,” the Oni spoke out in a low voice that silenced the room, all eyes drawing on the white woman standing before their leader, “About time you brought her…”

“Of course,” the white woman bowed low, lower than anyone else in Kumo would ever dare, but she was unlike them, Yorihi knew, but the young girl also knew this woman would bow to no one else, even Kami itself. She could feel the slight shift on her Teacher’s face, that almost barely-there smile, and she realized she was probably laughing at her Father, “Lord Raikage,” the woman stood tall again, seeming a giant herself despite her small stature, and Yorihi knew, compared to everyone else in this room aside from her Father, as far as the Assassin was concerned, she _was_ bigger than them. It was the young girl’s turn to smile. Grey eyes sparked as they glanced at the large man sitting on his throne before she took a delicate step back, presenting her charge, “She has returned unharmed…”

Yorihi couldn’t help the involuntary swallow as she held her hands at her sides, shoulder back, standing as straight as she could now face to face with her Father, the Raikage of Kumogakure. She didn’t know why she felt so nervous, maybe it was the other people in the room she didn’t recognize, maybe it was the darkness she’d become so used to hiding in, maybe it was simply the fact she hadn’t seen her Father in over four years and every little insecurity she had decided this was a great moment to pop up… and she didn’t have Bachi-chan to back her up.

The large imposing leader of Kumo lowered his hands, small black eyes looking upon the girl narrowly. He momentarily leaned to one side, running a finger along his grown out goatee, before standing up slowly, almost methodically, on the raised platform that held his ‘throne’. The man was already an Oni sitting down; now standing he was even more imposing, standing at his already impressive full height, now even that above the rest on the platform with his robe open to show his rock hard muscles and impressive physique. The man could crush anything with but the thought, and standing before him as his sole focus, Yorihi truly believed it…

She bit the inside of her bottom lip trying to keep her head level.

The Oni descended the stairs, heading straight for her and she willed herself not to move an inch. The closer her Father came the more confident she felt. Before she left she barely came to his knee, now she was at his thigh easily, she’d gotten taller, stronger, faced her own share of battles and even killed a person with her own hands. The young girl’s jaw clinched as whatever nerves she had left as her Father stood within a foot from her, it reminded her of so long ago, that distant memory she reenacted with Sutego, of when she was given her name, when she learned who she was.

Tenkyuu Yorihi did not bow, did not cry, did not fear anything from her Father.

“Otou-sama,” she said in that same low voice he spoke in, calm but powerful, carrying in the silence of the large throne room.

She caught the slightest raising of his lip before a large hand was placed on her head, rubbing lightly as he responded, “Welcome back, Musume…”

The murmuring started instantly, too many sounds for her sensitive ears to pick up and separate in the confined space but she understood the gist. To them, she was not her Father’s daughter.

Yorihi frowned, not moving her head as her Father let go. She could feel it, feel the bristling of killing intent from behind her from her serene Teacher and the charge of lightning in the air from her Father’s natural chakra infused aura. The silence that followed was deafening…

“Speak,” her Father’s voice was hard and cold as he looked at the gathered shinobi, those beady black eyes narrowing as a minute frown picked at his face, “if you have something to say…”

There was another round of quieter murmurs, ended quickly by the rising pressure of killing intent, it took Yorihi awhile to realize it wasn’t from her Father, but the small woman standing behind her with those grey eyes closed and arms folded into her long sleeves, it was probably the only thing keeping the pale woman from drawing her knife and someone else’s blood. Part of Yorihi wondered if she shouldn’t feel as relieved by the white woman’s reaction as she did.

“That _girl_ can **not** be your daughter!” it seemed someone finally found their voice, it was a man with dirty blonde hair and dark skin, a Kumo hitae-ate on his right shoulder and an over the left triangular vest. He wasn’t nearly as tall as her Father nor anywhere near as strong but he lifted his scarred chin and stared the Oni in the face when he spoke his words. Yorihi had only known her family and the few others to compare to, but at this moment she knew for sure, in this room surrounded by powerful shinobi, Kumo-nin did not bow, even to her Father who towered over them, they were strong and prideful, even the lowest among them and weren’t afraid to speak directly. If it weren’t for the fact she disagreed with what he said, she may have found some respect for the man to stand in front of her Father.

The Oni just looked down on him like a gnat, “is that so?”

The jounin held his ground, “Raikage-sama the girl looks nothing like you,” he growled, pointing one hand at the _small_ girl next to their leader, “None of us have ever heard of you having a child, let alone one that looks so frail and we-”

In an instant the man doubled over before something pale hit him across the face and sent him flying to the ground.

Yorihi tried not to gasp, she could hear the bones breaking in the man’s face and feel just how hard he hit the ground from that hit, but that wasn’t what surprised her…

“Say that again about my niece,” the small woman that had decked the condescending man shook out her pale hand before placing it in the other and cracking it as her voice held a growl and she glared down at the man with copper slit eyes, “And I’ll do more than break your face…”

It was Yugito. Yorihi blinked behind the bandana her eyebrows rising as she took in the woman she called Sister. The blonde had grown some, still short compared to her Father and probably Uncle, but probably now taller than her Teacher. She’d grown out her hair, the double blonde ponytail was now a lot longer and _really_ resembling tails, but mostly it was her eyes, they seemed to glow a copper color and had slits in them. She remembered eyes like that, but of a different color… they were the eyes of a cat. There was something else, the Yugito-nee-chan she knew used to always be skittish, the woman standing in front of her was standing tall and imposing… it was almost like…

Yugito grinned, showing elongated canines as she looked to the still Assassin, “Sorry Aneue,” the grin widened just a bit, “Didn’t want you spilling blood all over the place…”

Yorihi watched without moving her head as her Teacher finally opened her eyes, something about them cold and hard, a sharpened steel held in Yugito’s direction but not for her specifically, “It would have been inappropriate,” what she said wasn’t a denial and the ‘blind’ girl could tell by the blonde woman’s grin it had been what she expected. When the woman’s hard steel eyes finally laid on the man nursing a bleeding face she could have sworn there was a slight glow to her left eye.

Yugito just kept grinning, blinking away the copper color of her eyes and looking back at Yorihi with her familiar black iron eyes, the smile along with her features softening, “Hey Yorihi-chan!”

The girl just gave a small smile, “Yugito-nee-chan,” then she tilted her head remembering what the woman had called her, “Or should I call you ‘Oba-chan’ now?” blue-black brows twitched over the bandana showing she was blinking confused wondering about the shift in the feline Jinchuuriki’s reference to her. – _Not to mention Kemui-sama as well… ‘Aneue’?_ -

“Either works,” The blonde woman just had a cat’s grin, not really giving an answer, as she turned to the Raikage, giving a small bow, “Apologies Raikage-sama for the disruption.”

“Hmp,” the large Oni just grunted with the smallest shift in his shoulder not bothering to look in the young woman’s direction, still mostly addressing his ‘court’, “Any other _comments_.” Everything was silent, “Good.” The large imposing man shifted his crossed arms to behind his back, letting them all remember just how strong he was physically, “You are all here as representatives of your respective commands,” he turned just enough so that Yorihi was visible to the rest, “and it is to you I present my daughter.”

Various ninja and konoichi of different shapes, sizes, colors and styles turned to the girl, all of them had the hard powerful look of Kumo-nin to match their hitae-ate and triangular vests. These were leaders of Kumo and each and every one of them were looking straight at her.

Yorihi _felt_ their stares on her, she didn’t need her spherical vision to show her, her highly tuned sense of ‘danger’ was blaring in her mind and she was doing everything in her willpower to tone it down. Intentional or not, every single one of them released a spike of chakra, it wasn’t pure killing intent like what her Teacher and Tougemichi could produce, that cold dense feeling that pressed in, this was a plethora of colors and feelings but the intent was all the same. They wanted to know if she could stand up to them, if she _truly_ was the Raikage’s daughter.

The only overt signs of her discomfort were her hands gripping tightly on her top two swords and the frown on the lower half of her face thinning into a flat line. Several of the ‘smaller’ presences actually lessened, moving back, probably taking her grip as a threat and not a nervous grasp for something solid to hold onto, she didn’t have Bachiko with her after all. – _If they want to take it as a threat…_ \- something picked at the edge of her flat lips – _let them, I think **he** would agree…_ \- a very small, very minute smirk picked at the edge of the small girl’s lip thinking of what her constant companion would think of this gaggle of the supposedly ‘strongest’ Kumo had. – _They aren’t the strongest…_ \- her head raised slightly, her brows flattening, more of them moved back – _I’ve grown up my whole life with Kumo’s **strongest** …_\- her gaze and senses moved over her Teacher, Sister, and Father without moving her head and she felt her chin lift high. – _I know what **strong** feels like…_ \- it was funny, when Yorihi considered it, that perhaps the first time she felt like taking Bachiko’s advice, she’d left the cat to babysit her Teacher’s son. – _Oh well…_ -

In an instant the Raikage’s throne room filled with the presence of a massive wild chakra that easily drowned out that of those trying to ‘ _threaten_ ’ the little girl…

Most, the younger, less experienced members took a step back, tense and waiting for an attack… the older, more experienced didn’t move but anyone with eyes could tell they too were ready for a fight…

Then there were the very, very few that stood there, grinning in some manner at the small girl, recognizing **_she_** was the one that did that. Three in particular not far to the side didn’t move or seem affected at all: a tall dark skinned blonde woman, a taller chubby bald man with thin eyes and finally a short light skinned glasses wearing women with red hair so dark it was a touch away from black, she was the first to speak, an unusual smirk on her face, “I like her…”

The tall woman and bald man shared a look before the baldy spoke, “You don’t like anyone…”

The midget closed her eyes behind those half-moon spectacles, smirk never leaving, “I like her…”

… but Yorihi didn’t register that small exchange, she was focused on standing as tall as her Father and keeping her voice even as she continued gripping her swords and letting her chakra out.. - _… don’t show your fear, stand proud and speak loud… don’t show your fear, stand proud and speak loud…_ \- her brows lowered seriously as she finally told them what needed to be said.

 “I am Tenkyuu Yorihi, Daughter of the Yondaime Raikage.”

Quick, clean, and to the point, that was all _they_ needed to know… and probably all she could get out while keeping this up…

All eyes were on her again and her chakra bristled again waiting for some sort of retaliation…

None came, at least in the conventional sense. A hand unafraid of her wild chakra rested on her back and she could see the serious look on her Teacher’s face behind her. There was the barest of nods that probably only the little girl noticed, the woman was proud of her but now was not the time to be attacking anyone. A ‘glance’ at her Father told her he felt the same, his face was stern and if she didn’t know him she’d have thought he was mad, he wasn’t, just telling her with a glance the time for being defensive was over. Yorihi released a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in and brought her chakra back, it wasn’t flooding the room anymore but it was obvious to the Kumo leaders it was still there and bristling, ready at any moment to come back if needed…

A large man from the back let out a bellowing laugh before standing up and pushing his way forward through the crowd until he was standing directly in front of the small girl. The ground shook with his steps, and Yorihi had to hold her hands out to keep balance, then the man was standing in front of her and she had to clinch her jaw to not drop it. The guy was HUGE!! She could actually feel her covered eyes widen so surprised, she’d never thought a person could actually be BIGGER than her Father!! What of his skin she could see was darker even and scarred looking like stripes, his hair was a grayish-white sticking out in all directions and connecting down his jaw to a gruff wild beard, both having black streaks either from hair not turned white already or he made it that way was anyone’s guess, his continued grin showed sharp canines and chipped teeth while his icy small eyes kept their focus on her. He looked like a giant liger and that was all Yorihi could think…

“I’ve got to say Raikage-sama,” the liger-man put his large hands on his hips, standing big and never losing that grin, “that’s your kid alright,” his fuzzy head tilted back as he left a howl of laughter, “I can’t think of anyone else that would pull a stunt like that!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!”

“Hmp,” a tall but thin man stepped out from the crowd, his slate blue hair standing on end over pointed ears and a black eye patch covering his right eye, the left a dark hazel sporting a scar leaning opposite of the eye patch. His hitae-ate was on his belt, holding up a long katana he kept his fully covered left arm holding, “Any kid can lash out like that,” his voice was sharp and his visible eye facing the liger-man, “that doesn’t prove anything,” that dark hazel eye shifted to the ‘blind’ girl that barely came up to his comrade’s knee, “She’s probably exhausted from such a wasteful display…”

A hand swapped the thin man upside the head, “Shut it you prick,” it was a lightly tanned woman with long sherbet orange hair held back in a long thick pony tail, her well-endowed chest held up by a corset style vest as she pulled her fingerless gloved hand back and crossed her arms examining Yorihi with narrow green eyes, “The chakra was wild, that was just what she was holding back,” she turned her sharp face to the thin man, “I bet she wasn’t even trying,” a smirk rose on her lips giving her face a fierce look as she turned to the large Oni that lead them, “Now I’m just curious what her mother was like to get **_that_** ,” she shrugged and nodded her head obviously hinting to Yorihi.

“Stop your barking you minx,” the liger-man bellowed again, garnering a glare from the orange haired woman, not that he seemed to notice, just bellowing again with a laugh as he turned to the other assembled jounin, “You all may be pussies, but I was around when that man’s father presented him to the enclave,” a thick meaty scared hand pointed to the Raikage, “I remember how much of a display he put on, this _girl_ ,” his stripped head turned back to Yorihi with a fanged grin, “gave more,” a growl of approval entered the man’s voice as he posed again with his hands on his hips, “Company H approves,” he waved his hand, “I don’t need to see anything else…”

There was a snort from the thin man, “Of course you wouldn’t,” that dark hazel eye went from the large liger back to the little girl, his gaze appraising but intense, “seeing as that oaf approves, and as far as I can tell she’s still standing on her own…” his gaze lowered and Yorihi noticed his covered hand grip his blade, with the way his eye was moving she realized he was taking in her swords, “… and I am curious about her abilities,” his free hand raised, rubbing his pale chin as his eye closed in deep thought. It was only a moment later he nodded, coming to some sort of agreement before raising his head and glancing at the Raikage, “Company P approves, for now…”

The liger and thin man turned as one to glance at the ‘minx’ woman, she had a contemplative look on her face as she seemed to be adamantly ignoring her colleagues, “Hmm…” Yorihi noticed her green eyes shift from her to something behind her a few times. The little girl had to force down the curious brow that wanted to rise on her forehead at the odd gesture, then she noticed the slight grin spread on the woman’s lightly tanned face as her gaze stayed behind Yorihi, “I’m still curious about her _parentage_ ,” the slight smirk grew and Yorihi finally realized what the woman was staring at, or really ‘who’…

Kemui’s passive grey eyes didn’t look away from the woman’s presumptuous gaze, showing no emotion what so ever about the unsaid accusation.

The minx woman just kept smirking, pulling her gaze away to look back at their leader, “Suppose I’ll just have to wait and see for that answer,” she gave a curt nod, “Company S approves.”

After those three spoke several others stepped forward, giving their assessment, most approval, others assurances to watch, approving only for now. Yorihi waited, still, trying to keep every one of her senses calm as person after person addressed their ‘Company’ and ‘approval’, looking her over with a large range of emotion: apathy, disinterest, skepticism, and few had genuine approval like the liger commander. If any of them bothered to _ask_ her opinion, she had no idea what was going on…

A shuffle from the floor disrupted the current trail of commentary as many looked over at the jounin Yugito had decked earlier finally decide to stand up, hand raised setting his jaw back in place with a crack and Yorihi could sense a continuous amount of controlled chakra being put into to the area fixing the damage. The fact this man could do so without the _‘visible_ ’ signs of medical ninjutsu and so quickly was impressive. – _Maybe he does deserve that vest…_ \- the young girl thought as the dirty blonde man stepped towards her, an obvious frown on his features as he rest one hand on his hip and his dark eyes stayed on her, just looking her over much closer than he had previously.

“I apologize.”

Yorihi’s eyebrows rose, surprised. She could see many of the other jounin were surprised as well, cocking brows and tilting heads but most were quiet just wanting to see how this would play out. The little girl swallowed, not sure if she was supposed to respond or not as he kept staring…

“You look small and frail,” his tone still had a bite to it, but he wasn’t being insulting, just stating what his eyes were telling him, not that that stopped Yugito and Kemui from glaring at him, “and you’re not as impressive as your father,” momentarily his eyes took in the large Oni that lead them before coming back to her, “But I will not deny, for a child, that was an impressive display of chakra, both control and amount,” those dark eyes looked behind the child, spotting the blonde and white haired women, “You have the backing and approval from the Nibi Jinchuuriki and the last Assassin,” his eyes returned to the young girl, “For now, that will do, but we will be watching,” his eyes narrowed, looking for any sign of weakness, Yorihi showed none. The ‘stare down’ held for a few moments before he nodded, turning to the Raikage, “Company W approves.”

Just as the procession was about to proceed a loud _ BANG!! _ Informed the gathered jounin and Raikage of the arrival of another person into the throne room. All eyes traveled to the ‘door’, or what was left of the door to the Raikage’s throne room to find nothing but smoke and rubble as if whoever it was thought it was a _great_ idea to blow a hole in the wall instead of just turn the damn knob. Before the smoke even cleared there was already a number of groans, none quite as loud as her Father’s.

“Nobody fear!! Killer Bee is HERE!!”

Out of the smoke of the destroyed door stood the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, Killer Bee, a _slightly_ smaller version of the Raikage sporting the trademarked Kumo triangular jounin vest, though now Yorihi realized her Uncle decided to forgo any shirt underneath, _much_ like her Father, with his hand up in a sign like a bull’s horns and the biggest grin on his face. His goatee spread with his wide grin mashing up his bull’s horns tattoo on his left cheek as his black shades moved towards the large crowd, but Yorihi had the strangest feeling he was only looking at her.

“I’ll not believe my shades,” the large man tapped his small goggle-like shades, taking a step forward, “that little thing can’t be none other,” he started moving his hands with the beat he was making as he moved, “while the resemblance fades, it’s the kid of my brother,” that was _so_ a snarky grin he leveled his brother’s way before stopping right in front of Yorihi, grin wide as it could be as he held out both hands to her, “my one and only little home girl!”

Ignoring the round of groans, and one or two quips of ‘slant’ and ‘stanza’ from certain women standing near the Raikage, Yorihi couldn’t help but grin, there really was only one person in the world that would rap like that as an introduction, “Oji-chan!”

“Home girl!” how Killer Bee was crying through his goggle-like shades was anyone’s guess as the large man crouched lightning fast, grabbing the little girl and twirling around with her grinning and laughing. When he finally stopped he was holding her in one arm while the other was up in his bull’s horns sign and doing that silly “WHEEEEEEEEE!!” sound… everyone politely ignored the fact the little girl was making the sign too while her opposite held her apparent uncle’s shoulder.

There was many a face-palming.

“Well if there was any doubt before,” the ‘minx’ commander spoke dryly cocking her hip and flatly glaring at the scene, quite _obviously_ trying not to snicker.

The thin man snorted, “No kidding, multiple swords and the same bad taste in introductions?” waving his non-covered arm, “no way they can be related…” the sarcasm was thick enough many of the collected jounin snickered.

Yugito grinned like a cat while the white woman next to her had closed her eyes trying to repress certain violent urges directed at the Hachibi container.

And the Raikage…

“Bee,” there was a distinct growl as the formidable man cracked his knuckles.

… let’s just say he was less than impressed.

“Uhh…” Bee seemed to finally come back to ‘reality’, as in the one where his brother was a large Oni with a vicious wolf next to him, both glaring as he made the upper echelons of Kumo look like idiots in front of the gathered company commanders. Slowly his arm lowered to scratch behind his head as the tattooed man gave an embarrassed chuckle.

Yorihi didn’t understand why her Father and Teacher were glaring at her Uncle, she liked the break in tension… and the attention being off her for a moment, even if she was in its line of sight. The other jounin, from what she could tell seemed to relax more too, as if this was normal, making her wonder if all the posturing was just them being ‘serious’, her Oji-chan did have this effect on a crowd; all seriousness turned to giggles and everything more comfortable, though that seemed to only work on people that _weren’t_ the Raikage and Kemui. The small blind girl sitting in her Uncle’s grasp had to bite the inside of her lip to not snort, the sudden shift in atmosphere was hilarious, and that wasn’t even considering what she could see about it.

“Yo, chill bro, sista’,” Bee may or may not have taken a step back as the two continued to glare, he pulled up his free hand in a defensive way, “c’mon! I just missed her!!”

“Slant,” the white haired woman spoke _calmly_ as she tucked her hands into her long sleeves, “And a bad one at that…”

The ushi-Oni container pouted pitifully, “bad slant my ass, s’all about the em-phas-is, mah sis…”

Grey eyes narrowed the _slightest_ bit, but it was obvious she was holding her tongue, their grammatical arguing was typically limited to a smaller crowd, and Yorihi could tell she was not in the mood to have any more snickering on this matter.

Obviously Bee did _not_ take it that way, as the grin on his smug face tripled in size…

“Put. _Her._ _Down._ ” The growl obviously came from the Raikage, and if he weren’t at least ten feet away, he would be _looming_ over his brother.

Bee did _not_ ‘eep’, because that is not manly and awesome, but he did quickly take his niece in both hands and set her down gently on the floor, completely ignoring the fact she was biting her lower lip so as not to openly laugh at his _not_ ‘eeping’. Afterwards the large jinchuuriki took a quick step back and stood up straight, _trying_ to resemble the high level jounin he was _supposed_ to be.

The flat look the Raikage sent the Hachibi container was _almost_ a pout, for a second his beady black eyes glanced at his daughter, whom he noticed was _also_ trying to repress an obvious smile and a small part of him couldn’t be mad at his brother. Almost. The more in control part of the great Oni that ran Kumo and was particularly the _Raikage_ and not Jin, was still quite pissed about the shenanigans while he was trying to pull off this stupid ‘introduction’ ceremony. Another glance at his daughter and he _really_ couldn’t be mad at the man he called brother.

Not that he’d show it, “Bee,” the great Oni growled, “Where are they?”

Blonde brows twitched over those small black shades as Bee blinked, “Huh?” the continued glare he got from his brother was downright murderous, so he backed up again with a cheeky grin, “right, right,” a quick glance around frantically showed no one new, so Bee stopped and rubbed his goatee confused, “Where they at?”

One did not have to look to know exactly who it was that was glaring deathly at the Hachibi jinchuuriki. Yugito nonchalantly took a step _away_ from the two next to her, hiding her cat’s grin, as the other jounin were trying to piece together what was going on.

Bee didn’t seem to notice, turned away from the crowd and scratching his blonde beard confused, “OI!! KARUI!! OMOI!! WHERE YOU AT!!”

“HERE SENSEI!!” a shout came out from behind the rubble that was what was left of the door thanks to Bee’s grandiose entrance. All eyes glanced to see who it was, except Yorihi, for all anyone knew she was just tilting her head towards the new sounds. As the rubble moved and a particularly large piece was tossed to the other side of the room, there stood one of Bee’s students. The genin was heaving but it was more obviously from anger as their gold eyes glared fury at the large man while a scowl covered their dark face. A bandana-styled white Kumo hitae-ate covered their head so it was hard to tell, but thanks to Yorihi’s enhanced vision she could easily see the short cropped red hair underneath, everything else was a light grey folded shirt on top with what looked like a folded up half skirt on the bottom with dark shorts underneath. The skirt suggested a ‘girl’ even if that was the _only_ thing that suggested as much, everything else was just fury and rage, but Yorihi made a mental not to remember the long straight sword strapped to her back. The red-haired girl just growled as she heaved out of the rubble, stomping with her black boot-like sandals and dragging something behind her, “WHAT THE HELL SENSEI!!”

Bee didn’t seem to notice her fury, or blatantly _choose_ to ignore it, it was rather hard to tell, “S’up Karui, where’s Omoi?”

Those gold eyes glared more as with one hand the girl held up what she’d been dragging behind her. Being held up by a dark grey hoodie, and more by its ‘hood’ and the strap to his own long straight sword, was another genin who was completely dazed, his black eyes vacant as his mouth was hanging open and the lollipop inside was a second away from dropping. Most of his dark features were hidden behind pale-blonde dreads just barely held back by his white hitae-ate on his forehead.  He didn’t look to be carrying anything else, as his hoodie barely reached the top edge of his baggy dark grey shorts and Yorihi felt bad for him as the girl was obviously holding him a good couple of inches from the ground.

Like a _good_ sensei, Bee leaned over to examine his student, “Hmm,” then slapped him across the face as Karui didn’t move an inch, “Oi, Omoi!” still little to no response, so the large jinchuuriki grabbed the kid’s chin and shook his head, how the lollipop didn’t drop is anyone’s guess, “Wake up boy, you got shawty’s to impress,” a rather wicked grin spread on Bee’s face, “ ‘specially Kumo’s princess!!”

Several groans ensued.

Not that that mattered, as Bee’s words seemed to have snapped the boy out of his daze, “there’s a princess!!” in a flash of light the pale-blonde boy was out of his teammate’s hand and standing on the ground, fists up and looking totally pumped, “I’m gonna meet this girl, then I’m gonna impress her and we’ll go on an get married, and then I’ll get to be a king and it’ll be so awesome!!” there was a really weird dazzle in his black eyes as he grinned pretty stupidly for all of a moment before something seemed to cross his mind and immediately he hunched in a thinking pose, “but what if she doesn’t like me at first? Guess I’ll just have to impress her more, but then if we’re married, what if another guy comes along she likes? Would I still be king if she moved on? Or what if I find an empress or something afterwards? Is an emperor more important than a king? Hmm…”

Several brows rose…

“but WAIT!” the boy dropped his fist on his open hand, “first I have to impress her!!” he seemed confident for all of a second before  looking scared and tugging on his dreads, “But what if she thinks I look ugly!”

A bellowing laugh from the crowd of jounin cut through the boy’s monologueing, obviously from the liger-commander, “BWAHAHAHA!! Boy you won’t have to worry about that!!” several other jounin snickered at that, obviously all coming to the conclusion the girl in front of them was blind.

Yorihi was **_not_** going to correct them… even if she tilted her head not getting what was going on.

It was at this point Omoi seemed to finally notice two things; one, he was in the throne room of the Raikage, and taking a quick glance around revealed that just about every high ranking member of Kumo was here and seemingly laughing at what one of them said, and two… there was a little girl not far away.

The pale-blonde boy’s brain only seem to really pay attention to the latter part as instantly he bolted across the room and stood in front of the girl grinning like an idiot, grabbed her hand and said in all seriousness, “I’m sorry, we can’t have the purple rug.”

… and that was how Yorihi met her second Kumo genin. She started to wonder if they were all so blunt and possibly more blind then she was supposed to be. – _Does he not notice the bandana?_ \- she really couldn’t help but ask in her head, partially wishing she’d brought Bachiko just so the cat could give her a hint about what was going on, and maybe hiss at this boy to let go of her hand.

Luckily, she had ‘parents’ for that, as not a second after his idiotic question were the Raikage and Kumo’s last Assassin standing behind the girl and non-too-subtly glaring at the boy touching ‘their’ kid.

Voice eloquently as, “You _will_ let go of her or lose that arm,” by non-other than the Raikage.

Omoi seemed to register enough to look up , gap his mouth open wide, still amazingly not losing that damn lollipop, before just staring at the two higher ranking shinobi glaring quiet murder at him. The boy must have been frozen still as he didn’t move for a good minute, then the Raikage cracked his knuckles and Yorihi was almost positive her Teacher pulled something, probably sharp, out of her sleeve, and the boy’s black eyes shrunk and he dropped her hand. Not that he was capable of moving, so Karui, as his partner and apparent smarter one, snuck up behind the boy, grabbed him by the hood, and dragged him back to their sensei, being by the Hachibi container was quiet obviously _safer_ for them at this point then the rest.

Somewhere in the back there was a cackle that sounded distinctly like a cat, not that anyone was paying any attention to that.

Ignoring the last few minutes, and leaving Yorihi still obviously quite confused, the Raikage looked over at his brother and his ‘team’, “These the new ones?”

Bee did that thing with his eyebrows showing he was blinking, “ ‘Course bro, my old team off bein’ chuunin, had these kids just a month or so,” he grinned, showing his fanglike teeth, “should be enough for little home girl to make a scene, yo!”

Yorihi could tell without moving her head that her Teacher, while only glaring flatly at her Uncle, wanted nothing more than to comment. The little girl tried to keep the smile picking at her lips as unobvious as possible.

Moving her hidden gaze the younger girl could see that both the genin were glaring at their sensei, well mostly Karui’s piercing gold eyes while Omoi seemed to be thinking heavily on something, pout quite obvious on his face but his black eyes were too ‘glaring’, as much as he did, at the large dark skinned jinchuuriki.

If this continued much longer Yorihi was sure she was going to just have to start ignoring her eyes, sight was giving her too much information she didn’t need to focus on that was quite distracting, and hard not to snicker at. She would have to find a way to make up for it, or hide it as using another sense, because she forgot how to turn them off.

A grunt cut the girl’s thoughts off as she noticed her Father nod, “Very well,” his beady black eyes turned to her serious, “You will fight these two to show what you’ve learned from Kemui’s master.”

There were several gasps in the crowd and Yorihi understood what her Father was _really_ getting at. He didn’t ask her if she knew ‘how’ to fight, as that would suggest a kind of weakness, she was expected to be able to fight, and by mentioning she’d learned under her Teacher’s master that carried some clout with the gathered jounin. They may not have any idea who Tougemichi was or what he taught, but they knew her Teacher and respected her ability, from the way many of them squirmed and others got particularly interested Yorihi wondered what _exactly_ her Teacher had done to garner their approval, and obvious fear. She’d already learned Kumo-nin were prideful and don’t bow, this meant they didn’t fear easily, and from what he Father told her long ago it wasn’t that they didn’t fear, they just never showed it. So the mix of pride and fear in some of them was interesting and meant they held the small white woman in high regard… now they probably expected the same from her.

- _Damnit_ \- the small girl couldn’t help the mental curse, while Tougemichi had taught her survival, blind-training, and bits of weapon skills… he’d not _exactly_ taught her how to fight, stating ‘the best way to learn how to fight is to just fight’. For all his being a hellish teacher, ‘technique’ wasn’t much of a care for him, unless it was a knife. She was starting to wonder where her Teacher got so much on technique, or if there was something ‘else’ about Tougemichi’s training she hadn’t noticed. – _That sounds like something he would do…_ \- unobvious training seemed to be his staple.

Yorihi just released a quick sigh before giving a curt nod, “Of course Otou-sama.” Not like she had much choice at this point.

“ARE YOU KIDDING?!” all eyes turned to the fiery redhead as she glared holes into her sensei, absently pointing at the blind girl, “THIS is why you brought us here?! To have us beat up some kid?” gold eyes passed over Yorihi for a moment, the older girl’s scowl growing, “She’s blind, and those swords of hers look too big for her to properly use,” the older genin waved her hand before turning back to the large ushi-oni container, “Not to mention she doesn’t even look like she’s been through the academy yet?”

“So what if she’s blind?” a calm voice spoke from the crowd as a large chubby bald man stepped forward. He had a dark hitae-ate cocked to the right of his head, partially covering a large gash that went from the top of his right eye and made a large ‘X’ with the headband. He had an oriental styled shirt with a high collar perfectly trim and neat underneath his over the left shoulder vest that seemed to extend into a long, almost coat-like opening that went down to his knees covering half of his baggy same-styled pants. His large muscular, if still kind of chubby, arms were held behind his back giving him a stiff stature at his thin dark eyes glared at the genin, “We taught you to never expect the obvious from your opponents,” somehow his thin eyes narrowed more, “Have you forgotten your lessons so quickly Karui.”

The red haired girl shrunk obviously, bowing slightly lowering her gaze and giving obvious respect to this large man, “O-of course not, Kuri-Sensei.”

“Hmp,” the man gave a stiff nod and Yorihi was reminded of Tougemichi’s barely-there approving nods, she could tell this man was a great teacher of some sort, even if Karui hadn’t just called him ‘sensei’, he just carried the airs of one about him. The large chubby man barely moved as he moved only his head to tilt towards Yorihi, she could _feel_ his thin eyes appraising her, “My former student does make a good point child, you would be unfit to wield those swords properly at your age.” There was an obvious question in there, even if it was just a statement.

Yorihi had to press her lips into a thin line to not frown as she turned just enough to recognize the direction he was speaking from, “I wasn’t going to use them,” her voice was clear and concise as she held the top right one, “My former master made me promise to not use them outside practice until I’m grown enough to hold them properly.”

Something about what she said must have impressed the large man as he closed his eyes in thought for a moment then gave the barest of nods. Whether or not he realized she could actually see it was a whole other question.

“What the hell!” again Karui yelled out at the crowd, the girl obviously had little concept of tact or taking things seriously, she angrily pointed at Yorihi, “What’s the point of carrying swords you won’t use?”

Again Yorihi tilted her head enough she felt recognized their presence by sound and let her lips frown just that bit more, “To get used to the weight,” there was far more to it than that, but ‘training’ was her primary reason for keeping them on her person, many of the other jounin seemed to nod in agreement with her.

Gold eyes glared as the dark skinned girl frowned more, stalking forward, “That doesn’t make any sense…”

A hand on her shoulder pulled the girl back, it was Omoi and the boy had a rather serious look on his face, “Karui, let it go, she’s got her reasons,” while his teammate continued to growl next to him the pale-blonde boy turned to look Yorihi over, taking her seriously this time compared to his previous introduction, “We’ll just not use our swords, kay? Make it fair.”

“WHAT!!” again, Karui yelled, it was getting really hard to tell if her anger was serious or not.

The lollipop in Omoi’s mouth tilted down with his frown, “It’s only fair, we can fight without ‘em…”

“Don’t,” all eyes turned to the girl that spoke, of course it was Yorihi, and the look on her face was surprisingly serious despite being unable to see her eyes, “I’m not using my swords as a self-imposed rule, it doesn’t mean I can’t fight without them…”

Both genin frowned, for obviously different reasons, Omoi not liking the disadvantage to their opponent, Karui not liking being looked down on by some blind girl.

“A compromise,” a soothing voice spoke from the crowd, when Yorihi focused she was surprised at what she saw. It was a woman, that was obvious, sort of, but she was _TALL_ … for a woman at least, she was barely an inch shorter than the chubby man with thin eyes next to her and very obviously muscular, Yorihi couldn’t tell if it was the shadows of the hardened muscles or the black tattoos on her dark skin that resembled sideways long ‘S’s that framed every visible part of her giving the look of stripes, the most obvious places being on her muscular arms and legs, all the way down to her bare feet. The woman wore what was probably once a long full body dress, now reduced to a ripped short dress with an angle that showed high on her left leg and barely touched her right knee, and the sleeves were obviously torn off, the only off shoot remaining was the high neck collar that barely covered more of her strip-like tattoos. The tattoos continued up and framed her cheeks, accenting its sharp angles making her look fiercer, but the most obvious being the deep black marks that framed the bottom of her eyes and trailed down her nose. Her eyes were black and looked small and fierce from all the tattoos, probably their purpose, but two things stuck out as strange to Yorihi about her face; one being her long blonde hair, similar to her Father’s, with the long bangs that went to mid chest and the rest she could see going past her waist let out freely, and two there were six dots, three on each side going up from the inner part of her eyes. She’d never seen tattoos like that, or any of them really, but the fact those six dots were discolored instead of black made her think they much older and for a different reason then intimidation like the rest. She was obviously a strong, fierce woman, with her vest going over the right shoulder as she had a light red-purple sari draped over the left going over the vest and tucking into a belt just below the vest and wrapping around. The belt was actually a very long version of a hitae-ate, with the plate in the center and tied on the left balancing the rip of her dress. The woman was fierce and scary, yet her presence was calm and powerful, and Yorihi had yet to understand how her voice was so soothing.

Without much care or asking she reached into the back pouch on the chubby man and pulled out two black rods, her small black eyes seemed to inspect them a moment before tossing them in Yorihi’s direction, seemingly expecting a blind girl to catch them, “Those should be an appropriate substitutes for your swords in combat,” it was really hard to tell but it almost sounded like the woman was giving a small smirk, the tattoos made it hard to read her face, “at least for now.”

Without moving, as her head was still facing the genin in front of her, the ‘blind’ girl caught the tossed rods. It didn’t matter if she could _see_ them now, Tougemichi and the bats taught her pretty well about catching things flying at her without sight. She took a long moment to run her hands over the new objects, even if she _could_ see them it was a habit she gained in the darkness, touch could teach her more about an object then sight could. They were two rods with myriad scars etched into their light metal, they’d seen combat quite a bit, even if the dents and scratches weren’t visible to the naked eye, but more importantly they were hollow and segmented internally. A smirk rose on the girl’s face, she knew what these were; they’d work excellent as replacement swords for now. With one in each hand the blind girl took a step back with her right, giving her a more balanced stance as she flicked her wrists, extending the beat-rods to their full length as she took in their weight and reach. – _These will work nicely_ \- the smirk didn’t leave her face, and she got the feeling the blonde woman noticed as she nodded approving, “Thank you, these will work fine for now.”

“So polite,” the tall blonde woman quipped, a bare smile itching to tilt her lips as if there were some underlying meaning to her simple words. Kuri next to her seemed to only nod, apparently ‘understanding’ and agreeing.

Across from Yorihi, Omoi and Karui unsheathed their blades.

“Tch,” the red head frowned, “this seems like such a waste,” gripping her sword in both hands.

“Sensei?” Omoi held his in his right, balanced with the left open as his black eyes glanced to Killer Bee, “Is this alright?”

Small blonde brows cocked as a small frown picked at the Ushi-Oni container’s lips, “Why wouldn’t it be?” he rubbed his goatee, “she may be small, but that ain’t all,” a wide grin spread between his mustache and beard, “girl is, after all, related to me!” he held his grin with one hand holding the chin by the thumb while his hand was in a sideways bullhorns as his fangs showed in a cocky grin, the pride obvious in his features, “yo.”

A certain wolf gave the impression of rolling her eyes while remaining perfectly still, a certain cat grinning next to her while there were nods and comments of approval.

“Let’s see what the chibi princess is made of!”

“… I want to see how a blind child fights…”

“They always say oni women are beautiful despite their fierce fathers, let’s see if it’s true!”

“Let’s see how the girl fights, then there’ll be no question…”

Just as the comments and jests built there was a large shake of the ground, “ALRIGHT!!” the liger commander apparently jumped up and landed strategically between the opposing sides, Yorihi tried not to gap and wonder how the floor was still in one piece, and by the looks on several other’s faces, not to mention the sudden silence, quite a few others wonder that as well. The black and white haired giant grinned his cracked fanged grin as he stood tall, looking from one pair of combatants to the newly dubbed ‘Kumo princess’, “Let’s see what you have in you chibi-oni,” a large clawed and scared hand gripped in a massive fist, “You already have my approval, don’t let me down!!”

Several cheers and comments followed, smirks and nods spread through the curious crowd.

Then the liger bellowed with a pump of his massive fist, “NOW LETS SEE SOME BLOOD!!”

For a moment Yorihi was stunned by the people around her, she had no idea if they truly believed in her or just enjoyed the idea of a coming fight, even amongst children. – _but it’s not between_ children- her mind corrected as her eyes passed over the icy ones of the grinning liger commander – _they see us as fighters_ \- then she remembered the hitae-ate’s on Karui and Omoi – _and they are adults… no matter their age…_ \- the young girl’s resolve grew as her 360 degree vision caught on the myriad confident and approving faces… even the looks on her Father’s stern face, that small peak at the edge of his lips while her Teacher was serene next to him.

It was almost like all of this was following some hidden plan that was going absolutely right…

Yorihi’s thoughts were abruptly cut short as in the instant she’d taken to think them a blade had come within an inch of her face. On instinct her head moved to the side without the rest of her even phased. She barely caught wide gold eyes as her right arm came up in a swift reaction sending the rod straight into the older girl’s chin.

She didn’t have the chance to register the shake in her arm at the contact as instinct told her of danger from behind. In an instant the girl was side faced, Omoi’s blade moving a hair’s breadth from her back as her left hand reached behind to swipe him in the side of the head with its rod.

Surprisingly the boy dodged, ducking low, flipping his sword and aiming it low, shoving it in the ground and using it as a pivot so as to block Karui while she recovered from the stunning blow.

Yorihi continued with her momentum to hit Omoi, drawing her right rod down low and swinging high as if to uppercut him, he dodged by the smallest fraction as Karui rolled around from his other side hoping the skewer the girl with a straight piercing strike.

Theoretically Yorihi _should_ have been unable to dodge such a quick strike… _theoretically_ she shouldn’t have been able to survive four years in a chakra-sucking mountain in absolute darkness either, when one lived on the edge, that’s when they truly learned. Her body knew how to fight a bakeneko in its enlarged form, two humans… easy.  An unconscious grin spread on the blind girl’s face in an instant as she thought about how she really was used to ‘strange’ and ‘unusual’ fighting, her normal sparring partner had four legs and two tails and far more ‘blades’ then these two.

Out of nowhere chakra pumped into the small girl’s foot as she shot up quickly, twisting around the striking blade, striking it with her own rod unbalancing her attacker as she landed on the other hand, twisting around again and kicking out hitting Omoi in the face and tossing him over Karui.

The redhead recovered faster from the sword being struck, willingly tumbling forward to roll behind the oddly agile girl and kneeling several feet away as her pale-blonde partner fumbled into a backwards roll eventually catching himself. For the first time Yorihi had seen her the older girl’s gold eyes are sharp and serious as she watched the ‘blind’ girl flip back into an upward stance, “Oi, Omoi…”

The pale-blonde boy was shrugging his shoulder as he stood up, being on the perfect opposite side of their ‘opponent’ as Karui, a position that _should_ have given them an advantage. – _Her being blind and without her primary weapons should give us an advantage… yet still…_ \- his quick mind went over the scenario, even if all her moves were reactionary, as they seemed to be, they were oddly precise. – _and that last move…_ \- he absently rubbed his jaw – _far too precise and well-practiced… who learns to fight against something like that?_ \- the serious boy was really wishing he knew what kind of training the girl had gone through, he rarely saw genin move in such a way, and it was only in one encounter he could tell this all already. A frown spread on his lips as he moved to hold his blade in both hands, keeping his black eyes on the girl as she stood calmly, “Yea, Karui…”

The dark skinned girl ran and hand over her lip as she stood, sword in one hand, “Think we should try _that_?”

Pale-blonde brows moved up and down as the boy obviously blinked, “You’re kidding right?” his shoulders slumped as he focused on the _little_ girl before them. She was the Raikage’s daughter, Kumo’s princess, they couldn’t… _shouldn’t_ … but…

“Tch,” the redhead’s grip tightened on the sword, “we’re supposed to give a good show,” she raised her hand holding the blade point out as she lowered into a crouch, “Might as well go all out…”

“Maaaan…” the boy slumped momentarily before raising his blade in both hands, holding the hilt level with his eye as those black orbs became sharp and serious, “we can at least _try_ not to kill her…”

“hmp…”  was the redhead’s only response as chakra pumped through her legs and she bolted forward. Across the way Omoi did the same, their synchronization nearly perfect as the two attacked the ‘blind’ girl.

It was _really_ bad for them that while they were discussing tactics across from their opponent, she had blinked ‘on’ the secondary sight of her eyes. There were several things Yorihi noticed about how much changed with this sight now that she was outside the cave, for one; she didn’t have to compensate for the walls anymore as while some chakra ran through most of the building in strange designs it wasn’t the same bright solid wall of blue flames the caves showed. Two, humans had extremely distinct chakra natures to each and every one of them, so filtering them all out was more difficult than it was with just the bats as they were all relatively the same. And three, while it was slightly harder to control, as she wanted to push more chakra into her eyes out of habit and she had to stop herself from doing so else blow the whole ‘being blind’ thing, it was far easier to see how humans dictated and moved chakra throughout their bodies. She could see the buildup of chakra in both her opponents’ legs, and knowing how she used such an action, knew they were going for some high speed movement, and thanks to what little Tougemichi taught her on proper ‘blade holding’ she knew , relatively, how they were going to attack…

So it shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did when she managed to hold off Omoi’s decapitating slash by holding her left rod in a backwards grip and tossing enough chakra to enforce the metal so as to not have it be cut and deflecting Karui’s lower leg-cutting slash her other chakra enforced rod. Momentarily she wondered how she got the chakra to fit nicely around the rods, and secondly berated herself for being so sloppy with it. If this were the caves the chakra would have been indistinguishable from the rods and perfectly enforcing it, not so wild and seeping out obviously and over the blades of her opponents’…

She noticed the perplexed looks on her opponents for a moment before the bushins shimmered out of existence… apparently her extra chakra having infected and dissipated the illusions. For a moment, Yorihi cocked her head confused…

Then she threw her hands out at her sides as two more of them came in from the sides, swords aimed to pierce. With her body flat the long blades passed harmlessly in front and behind, while her hands holding her rods went straight into the faces of her opponents… or would have had they not just gone straight through then vanished… again.

A minute frown found its way onto the young girl’s face, illusions were new… and rather annoying. – _why would anyone rely on sight?_ \- it was more annoying because she could _see_ with her secondary sight her opponents coming at her directly, then they just disappeared at the last second, probably replacing themselves with these ‘clones’ at the last minute to keep the sounds and feel of them to completely fool an opponent… all it was doing was frustrating her as she came within an inch of grabbing them only for them to melt away.

Omoi came from above with a guillotine chop while Karui came from below with an uppercut sweep, Yorihi could _feel_ and _hear_ them, so it _should_ be them… instead she pumped chakra into her own feet and just hopped away, leaving the two to assumedly barrel into each other. Instead the ‘shadows’ of them blurred as they touched and disappeared again. This was getting annoying!

She _saw_ them coming at her again, Karui in front with Omoi behind and she did the first thing instinct told her, she created a chakra bubble like she did with the bats. Only ‘problem’ was in her agitation she forgot to regulate it, to change her chakra amount and usage the same as she _tried_ with everything else since she got out of the caves, apparently distracting her was a bad idea. Her hands gripped tightly on the rods as her chakra whipped out in a bubble around her, cutting into the floor and flaring long wild tentacles that seemed to burn at the touch.

Omoi and Karui’s eyes went wide, as before they had a chance to swap with bushins a wall of chakra just _appeared_ in front of them and lashed out. Karui got smacked in the arm, while Omoi attempted to cut it only to be swapped in the leg. The outburst of chakra was quick and disappeared as quickly as it came as the entire structure was far too unstable to maintain itself, the young girl’s control gone haywire from her obvious frustration. Both combatants went flying the opposite ways they’d come and lay out for a while.

Yorihi had to calm down her breathing, that was more than she had intended, and the strain of just trying to ‘control’ that amount was exhausting. – _Why is it so different out here?_ \- she felt the sudden urge to flex her hand as it was shaking but with the rod in it was unable to, so she just flexed her wrists trying to get the tingling out. Absently she released her second sight, finding it more of a distraction then normal ‘sight’ at this moment… she didn’t honestly want to see the anyone else’s looks for her botched display and regular ‘sight’ was easier to ignore.

To say many of the present jounin were… ‘ _impressed_ ’ was an understatement. Many of them had no idea how to interpret what the girl had just done; there were no seals, no words, just raw usage of pure chakra. While the ‘technique’ obviously failed what it was intended, the fact a girl as young as her had some conscious concept of shape-manipulation without seals or words was beyond impressive, dangerous, but impressive.

“Whoa…”

“Fuck…”

“DAMN!”

The ‘minx’ commander elbowed the thin man, “And you said her earlier display was all she had,” the obvious snark in the woman’s voice was hard to miss, and if the thin commander wasn’t staring astonished he would have probably had a more snappy come back. Many others were gaping and unsure what to say period.

… although there were a _select_ few who were narrowing their eyes analytically at the girl’s failed technique. They knew what she truly was, and as grey eyes glanced to beady black ones an unspoken question flew between them. Had she just tried to do a Kaiten?

“SON OF A BITCH!!” eyes turned to catch the cropped redhead lean forward, holding her sword in right hand as her left was raised in front of her as the genin’s golden eyes stared wide, “WHY THE FUCK CAN’T I FEEL MY ARM?!”

_Certain_ eyes narrowed…

“Ugh…” on the other side of the battlefield Omoi rolled up, shaking his head and grabbing his sword before attempting to stand up. He made it onto one leg just fine but the second he attempted to put pressure on the other it buckled limply and he fell over with a terribly comical scream, “EEEEH!!” shaking away stars and his pale-blonde dreads the boy’s black eyes stared at his leg, it was there, right in front of him… so why couldn’t he feel it? Absently he reached out to rub it but still the absence of sensation bothered him, “What the hell?”

Grey met black and both Raikage and Assassin looked serious as a single thought passed between them. Their ‘not’-Hyuuga, his daughter and her student, had just managed a failed Kaiten that reached out with ‘paralyzing’ chakra… was this all just instinct?

“There’s no way my master could have taught her that,” a sharp whisper left the white woman only the large man next to her could hear. The great Oni simply nodded, knowing exactly what the assassin was getting at.

Unknown to everything that was going around her and just listening as her opponents complained about something she didn’t remember doing, Yorihi just raised a brow confused, not sure if this ‘match’ was continuing or not. For now, she wasn’t going to attack downed opponents… it didn’t seem worth it.

The redhead kept shaking her arm in front of her, eventually managing to figure out how to flex her hand even if the ‘feeling’ was still off. While the pale-blonde across from her kept rubbing his hands on his leg and eventually wiggling his big toe, that still present feeling of ‘absence’ was very disturbing but he could shove it in the back of his mind for now, they were still fighting.

Black eyes rose behind pale-blonde dreads as he took in the ‘blind’ girl. it seemed at the beginning of their _Mirror Dance_ she was falling for the bushin tricks, it was designed to trick people with its fast movements and combination of genjutsu, they’d both made a point to impress sound and weight into their bushins, or at least the illusion of such, and only kept the vision of them as a cursory thing. For being blind she seemed adapt at tracking them so he’d figured sound and weight had been her primary means of targeting and had hoped Karui had figured that out too. It seemed to work, frustrating the girl with the illusions as tried planned the perfect angle to strike her… but she kept ‘spotting’ them, so they had to swap with bushin at the last second and hope to strike again while distracting her. The _Mirror Dance_ wasn’t meant to go more than two illusions, she’d gone three, and almost four if she hadn’t pulled out that strange wall of chakra. – _How did she do that?_ \- he had no idea, and by Karui’s bitching she didn’t either, there were no seals, no words, just _BAM!_ Wall of chakra out of nowhere… and the off shooting tendrils was creepy, and this numbness was downright disturbing…

“How does a kid do that?” Omoi absently asked himself, not realizing it was out loud, or he’d get an answer…

“Practice,” the girl said calmly, not even facing him but he supposed at this point it’d be redundant, “Though that was terrible compared to what I’m normally capable of…” her humble depreciation was lost on the crowd, they probably thought she meant making the ‘technique’ bigger, and not smaller and more controlled. Yorihi felt very little reason to correct any misunderstandings…

A pout formed on the dark skinned boy’s lips as he stood up, shaky at first but he got used to the ‘absent’ feeling of his leg, the fact he could move his toe meant it would wear off eventually. For now, he looked at her sternly, they had a fight to finish. He brought his sword in front of him in both hands, trying to look as steady as possible, he was glad to see Karui doing the same across from the blind girl though her sword drawn in her right as she held a fist in the left probably trying to ignore that off feeling as well. A grin spread on Omoi’s face as he shifted the lollipop stick to the other side of his mouth, “So how about we continue?”

The blind girl’s head tilted.

His grin spread, trying to look silly even if he was really weirded out right now as a bare pain slipped into his leg, it was like waking it up after it’d been asleep and he had to keep the pain out of his mind and off his face. he couldn’t look bad in front of his sensei after all, “I bet you can’t pull off that odd technique again.”

The girl’s lips thinned, though it wasn’t from what they may have thought. – _what would Bachiko say as a response to that?_ \- she could tell the boy was taunting her, and her feline partner was a master of taunts, even if it wasn’t necessarily in ‘words’ like humans but she understood his gists. Several impressions came to mind and she partially wondered if he was able to ‘listen in’ from their distance or if she’d just spent too much time with that damn cat a part of her mind could easily mimic him. She said the first thing that came to mind, keeping her voice even and flat like her Teacher’s when putting down her Uncle, “Why don’t you find out…”

The looks of surprise and anger on her opponents, surprise from the boy, anger from the girl, was surprisingly worth it, especially since she felt they didn’t both hiding it as much thinking she couldn’t see it. Hopefully, they’d never learn the truth…

Yorihi raised her rods, obviously ready for the next move… she was _totally_ unaware of the slight smirk on her face.

“I’ll wipe that smirk off your face brat!” obviously, Karui was the first to snap, charging in at the girl quicker then she had before. Yorihi blocked with her left rod in a back grip, which didn’t matter as Karui continued the assault with a flurried combo afterwards. The smaller girl dodged what she could, countered what was obvious and avoided the feints. The redhead, despite her anger and dis-serious nature was good with a sword, especially considering if Yorihi considered what her Uncle said and that these two hadn’t been genin for very long…

A heavy chop came down that the smaller girl had to block with both rods crossed, leaving her open as Karui swung hard with her perceived to be useless arm. Whether or not she could feel it was irrelevant as Yorihi definitely felt the blow connect with her jaw sending her smaller weight to the side…

… Where Omoi was waiting as he came down with a solid two handed chop just as she came across him, ready to cut her in half.

Instinct flooded the small girl as she brought both rods up in back grips to block, adding to their stability by having them backed by her arms. An odd thought happened to enter her mind in the nanosecond of this all happening – _Now I understand why Kemui-sama has armguards…_ \- while she had no idea whether or not the woman still employed them in her travel-kimono look, she remembered them from her initial outfit… and really wished she had some at this moment.

With the force of the chop and block keeping her stationary the girl was slammed heavily into the floor, instinctively she had used a bit of chakra to enforce the rods, they weren’t hers, she couldn’t well have them cut in half during a fight like this. But whatever thoughts she may have had were essentially blown up as her back slammed into the cracked wood. Sure, she’d been body-slammed by giant ghostly felines into stone before, but something about the way the floor creaked unsettled her…

“OMOI!!” the redhead and several others shouted.

The pale-blonde had enough time to look at his partner, black meeting gold for all of a second before the highly abused floor gave an extra-large groan, and quickly their line of sight disconnected…

Now, the floor in the Raikage’s thrown room had taken several beatings in its years… unfortunately having the combined forces of rampant chakra, large giants slamming up and down on it, little girls lashing out with wild chakra, and finally a certain dread haired boy putting all his effort into to ‘stopping’ said girl was its final straw… at least for this spot as it happened to be at just the right apex of grooves Yorihi’s wild chakra had bit into and Omoi’s slam was the final push…

The floor around them collapsed and there was a girlish scream… though no one could really determine if it was the Raikage’s daughter or her male genin opponent… for both their dignity everyone chose to ignore that.

Ironically, what was below the ‘throne room’? apparently the main desk, which was NOT being manned by a certain chain-smoking woman at the moment, as she were terrorizing her own children, but her lowly assistant. Now, Kokuei , having lasted Reki for several years now, a new record, was used to ‘strange’ happenings… normally when said black haired devil was around. Including but not limited to random women glomping/groping him, having cigarettes thrown at him, paperwork, being left for hours to do her work, having to get _things_ for the scary woman and random visits from some of the scariest people on the planet and with that woman’s cocky attitude wondering how he was still alive…

Having the roof suddenly collapse on top of him with a genin and certain little girl he’d seen the Assassin escorting suddenly falling on him was obviously something new…

His immediate response of the sudden large cracking sounds had been, “Oh what now?” as his blue eyes had glanced up.

Joshu, now the head of admin as Mabui had started taking over his previous job, thank all the Kami above, had been coming to speak with the ‘desk clerk’ at that moment and simply sighed as he adjusted his black shades, “Not again…”

When the girlish scream stopped and the dust settled, Kokuei had both Omoi and Yorihi under his arms and Joshu had saved the paperwork. When the chief administrator and desk clerk assistant glanced at each other, noticing their ‘charges’, they shrugged before looking up and seeing the enclave of jounin commanders as well as the Raikage and his ‘entourage’ just looking down at them through the large hole. The only one that seemed out of place was a certain genin with gold eyes and mouth hanging wide shocked. Again, both administrators just shrugged, somehow this falling into ‘normal’ in their lives.

Shifting the papers to one arm, Joshu adjusted his shades and addressed the ‘crowd’, “Will there be anything else Raikage-sama?”

The stunned silence became a raucous round of roaring laughter.

“THAT just happened?! Hahahahaha!”

“… Oh the looks on their faces… haha…”

“Okay, there is NO WAY that girl isn’t related to the Raikage…” someone snorted loudly, sounding like they were choking.

“SERIOUSLY!! She just broke the floor!! THE FLOOR!! How long has this thing held?!”

“I don’t know, but I think this is a new record… HAHAHAHAHA!!”

And of course the loudest of all was the bent over black and white scruffy haired liger commander as he just bellowed, “YOUR DAUGHTER!!” slapped a large paw across the Raikage’s back, “DEFINITELY **_YOUR_** DAUGHTER!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

As Yorihi shook the soot out of her head and refocused her ‘sight’, realizing she was being held by her grandmother’s assistant, and there was roaring laughter above her she couldn’t help but blink behind her bandana. After hearing the liger commander’s large bellowing laugh and comment she blushed as her gaze found her Father and Teacher standing at the edge of the hole. It was **_very_** hard to interpret the looks on their faces… as she’d never seen such an expression on either the dark skinned blond Oni or the pale steel eyed wolf…

The snickering cat hanging off the bellowing ushi-oni was an entirely different story… apparently her ‘aunt’ and Uncle were quite amused with how this all played out.

All Yorihi knew was she felt very embarrassed and wished the darkness was back as being in this ‘light’ was obviously quite strange and dangerous…

Where was Bachiko when she needed him?

\-----

The large chubby man with thin eyes walked up next to the Raikage as the large blonde seemed to be glaring sternly down into the whole while the rest of the enclave of jounin commander’s laughed their asses off, “She did well, considering Raikage-sama.”

The Oni only grunted.

Next to the chubby man the tall woman with myriad tattoos came up beside him, arms crossed over her chest as her small black eyes gazed down passively at the blushing girl held up by the desk clerk’s assistant, those rods still held in her hands tightly, “despite her loss of control, her usage of unknown weapons is quite impressive,” a bare smile picked at the woman’s lips barely moving the tattoos on her cheeks, “I’d like to see what she could do in a prime condition…”

Again, the Raikage only grunted…

A much shorter woman with dark red hair that was almost black held in a low pony tail and half-moon spectacles over her large dark green eyes held an obvious smirk on her cute face, “I already told you two I liked her,” the short woman held her gloved hands behind her back, looking all too pleased with herself. She may have been half the size of the other two but her coyness and confidence spoke of how she was obviously more than enough to match them in ability. She had an over-the-left shoulder vest over a light ranger shirt with a high collar and opened low enough to show an odd necklace. Her hitae-ate was on her forehead and in a color similar to her hair, dark and barely red as a grin spread on her pale face caught somewhere between cute and malicious. She held up one of her gloved hands, revealing the thumb and forefinger were cut off the gloves, “She has that ‘certain quality’ I admire,” the grin spread as she put her hand back, “And you both know I enjoy nothing more than to crush people like that…”

The tall blonde woman and chubby bald man shared a look before turning in unison to their final teacher, the short white woman that had joined them a few short years ago, the blonde woman spoke, “What is your final assessment, Kemui-sensei?”

On the other side of the Raikage the white haired woman looked down on her student with sharp steel eyes. Only she, her Lord and the two giggling jinchuuriki next to her knew what Tenkyuu Yorihi truly was, and while the latter two were preoccupied with giggling with the rest of the enclave about the end of this presentation fight, she knew her Lord and her shared several similar ideas about observations of her ‘techniques’ they could not speak of here without threatening the girl. As worried as the idea of ‘instinctive Jyuuken’ was to the Assassin, she could not help but be impressed by what the girl had managed to pull off from surviving under her own master, even if the techniques obviously didn’t work here as she had intended, “Her control is off and she needs adjustment, plus her fighting while effective, wasn’t as honed as she needs it to be,” the moves had seemed reactionary, not conscious, like when swatting away a fly buzzing around your ear, it was something the girl did without thought. As the girl’s first teacher it would be her responsibility to figure out just what _exactly_ her former master had instilled in the girl, since reactionary fighting like that didn’t come from learning ‘techniques’ but from actual combat experience. – _Senshuu what did you do?_ \- the white woman tried to repress the growl as she gave her final assessment, “As a fighter she could do well and survive…”

A sweetly sarcastic voice cracked from the other end of their line, obviously the dark red haired woman, “But as a shinobi?”

The wolf tried very hard not to sigh, _very_ hard, “without techniques, or understanding of seals she could hardly be called a shinobi,” – _but with her already instinctive knowledge of chakra molding she may not have to…_ \- Kemui kept that last bit to herself, her mind already running through several ideas of training that could help her student without the other sensei knowing.

The midget at the end rubbed her hands together lavishiously, “Oh this is going to be _fun~_ ”

Again Kuri and Ruri shared a look, thin dark eyes matching the tall woman’s small black ones before they glanced from the short red-almost-black haired woman grinning that odd grin and the calm hostile serenity of the white woman, ignoring the stern Raikage in between. Another shared glance before Kuri pointed his thin dark eyes at the taller more imposing Oni next to him, “It seems we are in agreement, Raikage-sama.”

“Hmp,” the large Oni nodded, understanding the man next to him.

Kuri and the rest of the teachers looked back down at their newest charge, slightly amused as the small girl was now standing on her own feet next to Kokuei while both of them prodded the catatonic Omoi, “It is agreed then,” the chubby man nodded as he closed his thin eyes, “in the coming semester we will have another student…”

“Oh she is going to _loooove_ the crash course,” while the others were sternly agreeing and keeping the peace of the idea of their new student, the dark red-almost-black haired woman was grinning a cheeky cute and malicious grin. Yes, Moe was going to have fun with this new student.

Four sets of eyes glared at the midget, but nothing could dampen her spirit.

\-----

Musume - Daughter

Omoi – Heavy, Thought (Serious)

Karui – Light, Non-serious

Ruri, Kuri and Moe – phonetic screwing with of ‘Larry, Curly and Moe’


	3. Swirling Tides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that that's over with, let's talk about a few things...

The first thing that left Reki’s mouth once she stepped into the Raikage’s tower and saw the gaping hole that was right above her desk and slightly to the right was, “that’s nice…”

The second thing she said as her coal black eyes lazily swung down to her assistant who was using a push broom to shuffle  debris out of their work space was, “What the fuck are you doing?” accented by a raised black brow and poignant stare.

Kokuei rightfully jumped three feet in the air and stiffened like some poor animal struck by lightning. The should-probably-be-jounin turned slightly, push broom firmly in hand and stared at his superior, nervous under that flat black gaze behind those wireframe glasses with the seemingly lazy crossing of arms under her considerable chest. Then something white caught his attention and dark blue eyes spotted the little kid standing next to her with the white hair, similar black eyes and holding what looked like a grumpy blue-black cat glaring more poignantly then the older jounin with those vibrant blue eyes. Where had he seen that thing before? _Had_ he seen that thing before? Why was it creeping him out more than his boss?

“Up here Assistant!!” Reki barked at the young man as he snapped to and those dark blue eyes went straight to her tan face, “Now answer my question, what the fuck are you doing?”

Still looking rather spooked, Kokuei said the first thing that came to mind as he absently tapped the push broom on the floor, “Uh… cleaning?” did his voice crack? It sounded like it cracked.

Reki narrowed those lazy black eyes on him, taking several steps forward menacingly towards him as he noticed she had an unlit cigarette hanging from her lips rather pitifully. Some strange part of his mind was relieved, he couldn’t imagine his boss without a smoke in her mouth, even unlit… which was still weird, but… eh, so were little girls falling from the ceiling. The tattooed older woman seemed to tower over him as she lazily glared down and just snorted at him, the dark haired younger man was really trying to not squirm.

“You’re an idiot,” absently she smacked him upside the head causing the black haired assistant to stumble slightly as the older woman fluidly brought her hands together, formed three seals, and crouched down slamming one hand on the floor. She didn’t say anything, just moved the cigarette from one side to the other as she channeled chakra throughout several hidden seals built into every surface of the Raikage’s tower. Instantly all the dust and debris Kokuei had futilely been sweeping sunk into the floor and a groan above them signaled the large gaping hole in the Raikage’s throne room was sealing itself up.

Kokuei could only stare, jaw hanging slightly as his grip on the broom loosened enough for it to drop.

Off behind Reki, Sutego and Bachiko were staring too, the young boy finding the ceiling melding into itself amazing while the ghost cat just stared. It wasn’t _that_ impressive… at least he’d keep telling himself that.

As soon as the last fraction of ceiling closed up, Reki stood again, looking none worse for wear, and just lazily looking at her assistant.

Kokuei could just _feel_ those eyes on him. Slowly he closed his mouth and turned to look at his superior, “T-T-Tai-ai-aich-” that was as far as he got before another swipe upside the head, “Ow!”

“Why the hell do you think we have those seals?” the older woman flatly glared with those black eyes as her assistant squirmed, “Ever since the reconstruction of this damn place under the Second Raikage there’s been fix-it seals on every surface,” the woman’s arms crossed as she looked flatter at her assistant, “and why is that?”

“B-because the Raikage are prone to breaking stuff?” he answered simply hoping to not get another swipe upside the head.

Not that Reki would accommodate him as her bare hand came up again smacking his sore noggin, “Because the Raikage are prone to breaking stuff, no shit,” the somewhat scary jounin grabbed the young man’s head and turned him directly to face her, those dark blue terrified eyes to her eerily bored looking black ones, “something like this happens again, use the damn seals, understand?” there was a quick nod before she squeezed the young man’s head too tight and tossed him to the side, “Now don’t let me catch you doing this boring cleaning bullshit ever again,” absently she kicked the push broom as she passed her downed assistant and asked no one, “Where the hell did you get this thing anyway?” it quickly went sailing down the admin hallway, never to be seen again.

Kokuei just sweatdropped, not sure if he should say anything or move; her eyesight wasn’t that good at the peripheries right? Her glasses didn’t cover that range of vision right? Maybe if he stayed still-

“Assistant!!” immediately she could feel the squirming young man jump to his feet in perfect inspection form, she didn’t have to look directly at him to scare the crap out of him, good, “Get back to work,” the tan woman absently waved her hand, dismissing the younger man, “Sutego, c’mon…”

“H-hai, R-Reki-s-sama!” the little white haired boy nodded furiously, running ahead to catch up with the crazy woman, odd feline still glowering in his arms.

Kokuei just raised a black brow as the two passed and his _evil_ boss disappeared down one of the halls, all he could say was, “That was weird.”

\-----

Reki walked past several halls with various jounin filtering out. She only vaguely recognized some of their greetings and whispers; often in the form of stuttering ‘Taichou’ or ‘what’s she doing away from her desk?’ with the occasional jab at the fact her sad cigarette was unlit. None of them seemed to care or notice the white haired boy carrying the languid cat behind her…

As the black haired and eyed jounin stepped through what remained of the door to the Raikage’s receiving room, assuming it was Bee’s or the Raikage’s handiwork, there was the familiar snap of heels and a salute given, accompanied by two shouts of, “TAICHOU!”

Bored black eyes idly glanced at the two ANBU who had been exiting, stepping aside as their senior, even if retired, walked in before them. She didn’t fully recognize them, but no one in ANBU was technically supposed to be able to. One was female and shorter with what appeared to be a bird type mask: feathers curling around her face at the ends of the mask while the non-descript styling only showed a beak where her mouth would be and short lines for eyes, the red suggested some kind of tropical bird the desk clerk assumed. Next to the shorter woman was obviously a man, if slim and still probably quite young, his mask being green with scales suggesting a lizard or snake, while four horns curled around and hugged his face. Bored black eyes merely glanced a while longer, probably making them exceedingly uncomfortable, before she finally spoke, “Fix the door…”

“HAI TAICHOU!!” they both dropped their salutes immediately, forming the ‘fix-it’ seals and going about the work ordered of them.

Reki simply walked by, ignoring them. – _Haven’t been a ‘captain’ in years yet everyone still calls me that…_ \- idly she wondered if one of those two was the new Commander of Company 1, but immediately dismissed the idea with how skittish they were. She gave a dismissive snort – _It’ll be a cold day in hell before someone like that replaces me…_ -

With a great sigh, and wishing more than anything her cigarette was lit, the woman scanned the wide open room with black eyes. Most of the jounin Commanders were filing out, and other than those two she’d left at the door it seemed there were only two other ANBU commanders still loitering about. There were of course a few others that were neither, such as the Raikage and Kemui arguing off to one side, a part of her couldn’t help but snicker at that as the two seemed to inch closer the more heated their debate got. Apparently her junior did **_not_** approve of whatever shenanigans the Raikage had pulled by calling the entire Enclave of Company Commanders. The fact that the large man had to _defend_ himself to the small white woman was worth any amount of money to see, it was quite priceless…

But jerking Kemui around wasn’t what she was here for, even if she’d been somewhat forced to bring the woman’s brat with her. Turning her gaze to the other side of the room she spotted a large group, consisting of probably some of the loudest Commanders she’d known as well as the Jinchuuriki… well ‘one’ of them, as she watch some small genin kicking and screaming as Killer Bee hauled her onto one shoulder and walking towards the fixing door.

“Oi! Yugi-chan!” Bee called back with the genin over his shoulder, still thrashing, with a delighted wave to the smaller blonde woman, “Don’t mind watchin’ my home-girl, right? Gotta put this one ta bed, yo understand?!” the obvious belittling of the genin caused them to kick, growl and thrash more, Reki found it quite hilarious.

“Got’cha Senpai, I’ll look-” the smaller young woman was leaning out of the crowd as Bee walked backwards, grinning at first then flipping immediately to shocked, “BEE, LOOK OUT!!”

“Eh?!”was all the tattooed behemoth got out before he turned around, stopping barely an inch from Reki’s bored face.

“Yo,” the black haired desk clerk said lowly, but Bee could have sworn it sounded like a death knell.

There was _not_ some kind of odd squeak from the large Ushi-Oni container as he stood on his toes so as to not bump into the older woman, “R-Reki-san! Howsit goin’-”

Immediately there was a hand in his face, “Not in the mood Bee,” black brows were lowered and the woman almost had a growl in her voice, causing the large Jinchuuriki to straighten more, “Where’s my granddaughter?”

Blonde brows quirked on the man’s dark tan forehead, “Granddaughter? You got one’a those?”

Black eyes just stared flatly, “Yorihi.”

“Oh!” he spun around not even paying attention to his student he hauled on his shoulder, lucky for him Reki just dodged it, “She over there with Yugi-chan~, the finest-”

“Bee,” the black eyed desk clerk growled.

“Shutting up!” he gave a small salute before spinning around and trotting out the door.

Reki didn’t really care, giving the vaguest of shrugs as she walked towards the crowd. Upon approaching she got a better look at the Commanders teasing the little girl in the center as well as the shorter blonde not far from her, “Oi!” the desk clerk lazily waved when they turned, giving a bit of a smirk.

“REKI!!” immediately the large liger Commander of Company H bowled towards the woman, arms wide and chipped fanged grin bright.

“Hey, HEY!” the black haired woman had her hand out, stopping the charging behemoth barely a foot from her, “You know how I feel about those charging hugs of yours,” the smirk didn’t leave her face, even as the big man just lowered his arms to his hips. For a moment the older woman pouted, as she went to take a drag on her cigarette and realized it wasn’t lit, but quickly shoved the habit to the side as she looked up at the salt-and-pepper haired beast of a man, “How’s it been, Raiga?”

“Heh-heh, good as always!” the guy had that large chipped grin, before slapping a hand on Reki’s back nearly toppling the woman over, “What about you?! Didn’t see you at the desk earlier?”

“Not to mention the _lack_ of that hazardous cloud of smoke that follows her,” both of the older pair glanced up to see the minx Commander of Company S giving a sultry grin to Reki’s flat black glare. The minx waved, “Hey Reki-san~”

There was an obnoxious snort before the desk clerk looked back at the large liger, “You in charge of that one?”

“BWAHAHAHA!!” of course there was a large bellowing laugh, his large clawed hand slapping Reki across the shoulder again, even if the woman didn’t move an inch this time, “I wasn’t in charge of her mother, what makes you think I could control her? BWAHAHAHA!!”

The minx glared.

Reki just smirked, “I dunno Raiga,” she reached out and patted the man on the arm, unable to reach his shoulder with a chuckle, “figured you’d have a bit of control over the little minx…” nothing could take the smirk off the older woman’s face as she and the large man laughed openly as the younger minx Commander just scowled. After calming down she smacked the large man’s chest with the back of her hand, “Good to see ya again Raiga, now where’s my granddaughter!”

Bushy white-and-black-stripped brows rose, “Thought your kids were too young for that?”

A sharp glint entered the woman’s dark eyes, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Raiga,” a sinister grin split the woman’s face, “Now, where’s Yorihi?”

“The little oni?” his brows cocked as his tiny icy blue eyes scanned the woman, “ _She’s_ your granddaughter?”

Reki just smirked, taking a step forward towards the little gathered crowd, throwing over her shoulder at the old acquaintance, “Would I say it if she wasn’t?”

The liger Commander seemed to muse over that tidbit of information for a moment, rubbing his gruff beard before a chipped grin split his face, “Bwahaha!! Always gotta outsmart everyone, don’cha Reki!!”

A smirk was all his reply got as the woman walked up to the group. As soon as she was close the other Commanders got out of the way, revealing the little blue-black haired girl with the bandanna around her eyes, Reki could only smirk as she removed her unlit cigarette, “Hey there, Yorihi-chan, how’s Mei’s clothes holding up?”

An obvious blush passed on the small girl’s round cheeks, “W-well enough,” she looked at the rods still in her hands before shortening them into their smaller form and tucking them into her kimono, she’d have to find that tall woman and chubby man to give them back later. She tilted her head up at her staring grandmother, before flexing her hands out, “Though I think if I get in another fight I’ll need something more, Baba…”

 Reki could just _feel_ as the brows rose on the younger Commanders, she couldn’t help but grin, “I’ll see what she’s got in that overstuff closet of hers,” those black eyes turned and nodded towards the little boy standing a bit off from the large liger Commander, “Brought someone that was looking for you,” her head nudged him over, “Bring it over…”

Sutego quite obviously jumped at the command, the poor little white haired boy gulped as all the large, scary adults looked down at him, finally noticing he was there. His small black eyes were wide as he tightened his hold around the large blue-black tabby, its sulking the only thing comforting him as he took shaky steps forward.

“Heh, what’s this?” a large, booming voice spoke above the little boy as he passed, he took a moment to glance up and saw the giant waving a clawed hand at him, “This another one of yours Reki?”

The black haired woman snorted, shifting to flatly look at the liger Commander, “Like I need another one,” the tall older woman crossed her arms, looking at the boy, something hard in her eyes, “No, he’s Kemui’s, can’t you tell…”

Sutego squirmed under the dismissive glance.

“So that woman does have kids?” the curious voice came from the minx Commander as she rubbed her chin musing. The woman’s light green eyes glanced from the little white haired boy to the pale, blue-black haired girl several times before giving a skeptical glance to Reki, “You two got a history don’t you?”

“Hmm?” Reki glanced at her flatly, “You say something?”

Green eyes just glared, “First you say you’re the Raikage’s daughter’s grandmother,” she nudged towards the skittish boy, “And then that this one is that Assassin’s kid,” green eyes glanced between the kids and back to the older woman, “Black eyes on one, dark hair on the other, hmm?”

Said older black eyes flatly stared as she replaced the unlit cigarette, “I have no idea what you’re implying,” Reki shrugged her untattooed shoulder before glancing at the scared boy holding the less cranky cat, “Go on, give him to her, sure they been dying to see one another…”

Yorihi frowned at her Grandmother, “if I could use my eyes to see, sure, Baba,” the little girl turned back to the little boy too scared to approach her while the older woman and the large liger Commander chuckled at her come back, “It’s okay Sutego-kun,” she smiled at the little boy, which only seemed to make him blush as she opened her arms, “Come here, Bachi-chan!!”

Immediately the cat’s ears perked up and it seemed he snapped out of his grumpy daze. Vibrant blue eyes looked around, first at the boy holding him, the group of adults staring expectantly, then finally at the smiling face of his master. His forked-tails waved as the cat nearly grinned, but being conscious of the people around them, especially those not deemed ‘family’ by his master, he wrapped his tails into one and struggled out of the little boy’s arms. He gave something of a squeak before letting the feisty cat go, who quickly bounded the short distance over to his master, who simply held out a hand he quickly jumped on, up her arm, and settled himself comfortably around her shoulders. He knew she got his message, loud and clear.

“Alright, alright, hehe,” the little girl reached up to scratch under the ghost cat’s chin, “No more leaving you alone…”

Reki raised a black brow, “that’s as lively as I’ve seen the thing,” black eyes shifted from the happy little girl to the blonde woman standing not far from her, “Yugito,” the blonde glanced up, as Reki nudged towards the arguing pair off in the corner, “Go get her father…”

The Nibi jinchuuriki paled, “Do I have to?”

Reki just stared flatly.

The blonde sighed, “Really?” there was an obvious pout on her face as she glanced around at the other jounin, “How come I have to?” crossing her arms, “Senpai wanted me to watch her.”

Reki just snorted, “I’ll watch her, go on.”

The minx and liger commanders chuckled, and she could have sworn those two ANBU Commanders were giggling behind their masks. The tall thin Commander of Company P turned to the blonde sympathetically, “Statistically, you are the least likely to get maimed in _interfering_ …” there weren’t _exactly_ raised voices, but all of the higher level jounin could feel the distinct spikes of killer intent from the two arguing as they all turned to glance, “… with _that_.”

Yugito sighed heavily, pressing one hand to her temple, “Bunch of cowards…”

Reki just chuckled, “Chain of command,” she made a rather flippant wave as the blonde just glared before walking to her immanent doom. After a snarky chuckle she glanced over her shoulder at the large dark skinned liger-man, “Raiga, get you and the rest of these brats outta here…”

“Hey!” was the indignant growl no one paid attention to.

The large man just raised a brow, “got something planned?”

There was a small smirk on the smoker’s face, “Just a bit of family business…”

There was a wide chipped grin before a bellowing laugh and another massive hand on Reki’s shoulder, “Bwahaha! Only you Reki!!” the large man then turned to the room, bellowing in his loud familiar voice, “ALL’A YOU SLACKERS!! BREAKS OVER, BACK TO WORK!!”

There was a series of groans.

“GO ON!! GET!!” a large clawed hand pointed at the newly fixed door, causing the two ANBU that had fixed it to jump at the sudden attention, “AND I DON’T WANNA HEAR ANY BITCHING TILL WE’RE OUTTA HERE!!”

More groaning but the remaining Commanders started filing out. The Commander of Company P gave Yorihi a slight bow before dragging the kicking and screaming Commander of Company S, those two ANBU that had been loitering around the group seemed to silently pause in front of the Raikage’s daughter, handing her candy before being shooed towards the door by the large liger and her glaring grandmother. Sutego was shaking, completely unsure if he should be leaving too…

All Yorihi could do was raise a confused brow, along with Bachiko, before pocketing the candy.

Reki just felt a large hand on her shoulder before looking back with a bit of smirk, “Shouldn’t you be going Raiga?”

There was a large chipped fanged grin, “It was good seeing you again Reki,” then turned to the two children at his feet, “I expect to hear great things from you, chibi-Oni!!” then his icy eyes glanced at the scared little boy, “You too! I’ve seen your mom work with Company 1 under this narcissist,” he pointed a large thumb back at Reki, who only seemed to snort, “nothing like those shock troops!! BWAHAHA!!” and with a quick turn the laughing Commander was off and out the door.

Sutego looked scared.

Yorihi on the other hand was frowning slightly as she turned towards the taller black haired woman, “Baba, what was he talking about? Company 1?” she’d heard that name before, one of the few people with masks and were mostly quiet had claimed to be the Commander of that company. – _But if what he said was true… then Baba… and Kemui-sama…?_ -

Reki’s black eyes were flat, “Ancient history,” there was a very small smirk picking at the edge of the woman’s lips, “Might tell you when you’re older.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell her now?” two sets of black eyes and hidden white ones turned to see a man step out of the shadow of a column and approach their little group. He wasn’t a particularly tall man, at least by Kumo standards, probably actually an inch or two shorter than Reki from what Yorihi could tell. He obviously _looked_ older, with grey hair that seemed almost a light pink due to flecks of old red hairs that hadn’t quite grayed yet and noticeable wrinkles on his very lightly tanned face around the eyes and his small mustache. There was a sternness to his gait as he approached, his hands folded into his white coat sleeves while his purple eyes remained on the older woman, “It is quite the _fascinating_ history of one of the bloodiest companies Kumo has ever had.”

“Tch,” Reki only frowned slightly, put a hand on her bare hip as her black eyes flatly glared at the man, “What do you want Uzushio? Aren’t you supposed to be off designing some new seal or something for R&D?”

The man’s purple eyes narrowed more, frown tugging at the edges of his mustache and wrinkles, “It is because of R&D I’m even here, _Taichou_ ,” the amount of venom the man held in that one word directed at Reki had both Yorihi and Sutego flinch.

Narrow black eyes glared sharper, “You’re not part of Division D,” she looked him up and down, sizing the old man up while putting a hand on her unlit cigarette around her mouth, “Section B looking too far down their scopes to come check out their pet-project in action?”

Oddly it was the older man’s eyes that narrowed more, taking a moment to look down at Yorihi before glaring harder at Reki, “They were _busy_ …” the frown spread as he closed his eyes, tired of the ruffian, “I volunteered to oversee this function.”

Old black eyes narrowed behind wireframe glasses as it suddenly felt a touch hotter in the room, “Now why would you do that…”

There was barely a sliver of purple that glared back at the woman…

“A-ano?” both older people snapped to the girl who’d spoken up. Yorihi swallowed as both their intense gazes landed on her, she could feel their chakra restlessly shift under their skin as the killer intent between the two intensified with each barb thrown. Bachiko had woken on her shoulder, uncurling his tails and raising his fur with a low growl while she pulled Sutego behind her, the poor boy too scared and unused to such high amounts of killer intent to do anything but cower. Yorihi could feel him cling to her kimono and something about that sparked her to try and stop whatever was brewing between the two, there’d already been one fight today, there didn’t need to be another, “I don’t know what either of you are talking about but there is no reason for further fighting.”

The killing intent lowered mildly as the two ‘adults’ glared at each other one more time before Reki adamantly looked away and the older pink haired man looked at the young girl, “Wise words for one so young,” purple eyes narrowly glared at the black haired woman, “But if you understood the history between us you’d know there is _every_ reason for ‘fighting’ between us…”

“Keh,” Reki merely scoffed, walking off to the side, just to fume in peace and light up her cigarette.

Blue-black brows furrowed over the blue bandana on the young girl’s face as she watched her Grandmother walk away and light up. Her frown only deepened as she could still feel the small white haired boy, her Teacher’s son so huddled up behind her scared, even if his eyes were more on the black haired woman than the pink haired old man. Yorihi turned just enough in the old man in the labcoat’s direction to recognize his presence, “I’d ask you elaborate, but I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced,” she straightened up, taking a deep breath, “I am-”

“I know who you are child,” the old man cut in, knocking the wind out of Yorihi’s sails, “Beyond this farce of an ‘introduction’ the Raikage assembled to establish your ‘legitimacy’,” there was a derisive grunt from the old man, “but more importantly I know _what_ you are,” there was a glint in his old purple eyes as he looked directly at her bandana, almost as if he knew exactly what was hidden underneath.

Yorihi couldn’t help the reflexive gulp she took or the step back as she tensed, ready for a fight. She was vaguely aware of Sutego letting go, tensing in his own way, while Bachiko crouched on her shoulder, ready to pounce.

There was a long sigh from the old man, “You’re going to have to learn to hide that better,” he seemed to relax significantly as he dropped his hands from his coat sleeves, placing one in the labcoat’s pocket, “As for who I am,” he crossed his free arm over his chest, giving a slight bow, “I am called ‘Uzushio’ here, and am head of Section F of Division T of Kumogakure’s Research and Development Center.”

“Heh,” there was a grunt off to the side, all eyes glanced at the woman as she had her back turned, a stream of smoke rising above her head.

It was enough of a distraction to release the tension as Yorihi relaxed slightly. Her Grandmother was calm, not exactly ‘relaxed’, but calmer, in no way about to attack the man… well she _was_ , just not in the sense he was a threat to Yorihi. Off to the side she could see her family watching closely, probably curious what this man would do, let alone what _she_ would do.

- _What **can** I do?_ \- her mind ran through the short, volatile exchange between her Grandmother and the older man, several other comments made by the other Commanders, and anything else that seemed necessary. There was a lot of information she didn’t know, but what mattered now was this man had a history with her Grandmother and seemed to be in some sort of position that allowed him knowledge of her eyes, which had been carefully hidden the entire time.

The young girl frowned, she really didn’t like all these random instances with all these strange people, could she just go back to being hidden with only her family knowing who and what she was?

The scent of smoke passed her nose and the young girl couldn’t help but shift her sight’s focus to her Grandmother, standing off and silently glaring at the old man. It also reminded her of Tougemichi and she couldn’t help but wonder what he’d do in this situation. – _growl, hit him on the head with his staff, and demean him with how much he **didn’t** know…_ \- a smile picked at her lips, imagining the much shorter, _clearly_ older man scowling at this leader of an R &D section. She could also see her Grandmother smirking, egging him on and letting the older old man get away with it…

She let the smile grow a bit more as Bachiko nudged her mind, apparently agreeing with the idea of her Grandmother and old master having a go at this man. It gave her the courage to speak, “So what are you still doing here, Uzushio-san?”

A grayed red brow rose as the man straightened, “I had come to observe you for Division D’s Section B, and there was one thing during the fight that piqued my interest,” purple eyes glanced to the black haired woman brooding not far off, “I’m sure you’ve noticed it as well, Taichou?”

The older woman snorted, a puff of smoke escaping as she dropped the spent filter and crushed it under her sandal, “Yea, I noticed a while ago,” she turned, adjusting her glasses as she glared at the old man a moment before looking at Yorihi and approaching, “Honestly I wanted to figure out the deal with that cat first,” she stopped a few feet from Yorihi, looking down at her while holding the side of her glasses, “Wondering why it was so languid back in my apartment, yet the closer we got the livelier the thing became…”

“It’s obvious that thing isn’t a normal cat,” the old pink haired man groaned out, glancing from the desk clerk with slight spite before down at the girl, her pet, and the poor boy stuck behind her, “you people always seem to _acquire_ interesting things…” there was a sharp side-glance at the black haired woman net to him.

All Reki could do was growl at him…

“Uzushio-sama,” again, both older people turned, only this time behind them to spy the demure white haired assassin, tilting her head slightly to the older man in the labcoat, the Raikage and Yugito not far behind, “I hadn’t realized you were attending as well…”

It was strange how visibly the old man relaxed once addressed by the white haired woman, even returning her slight nod with a small bow, “It is good to see you again up close, Kemui-chan.”

Several young brows rose at the address.

There was the strangest, soft, barely-there smile on the woman’s pale face, “As you,” her grey eyes turned from the man to her student, the girl’s pet and her son looking far too confused and out of place to do anything but cling to the older girl. There was barely a sigh, none of the children really needed to be here for any of this, or know any of the ‘secrets’ going to be presented, but it seemed she had no say in the matter. She turned side face, looking directly into the large Oni’s tiny black eyes, “Lord Raikage?”

“Hmp,” the large imposing man took a step forward, Kemui quietly stepping to the side as he took her place between the two arguing older people, taking a small moment to lightly smile at his daughter before turning to the old man from R&D, “I assume you’ve been _cleared_ to observe all this?” there was something about his voice and words insinuating something only those ‘in the know’ could pick out.

Yorihi, Bachiko and Sutego were rightfully confused…

The older man with grayed red hair made a dismissive sound, putting both hands in the pockets of his labcoat, “I’ve known the moment I had a look at the girl, as you recall my family had quite frequent dealings with them,” purple eyes thinly looked at the confused girl before turning to glare openly at the black haired woman taking off her glasses, “And I’ve known about _that one_ since the moment she sauntered into my village, razing it to the ground…”

“Uzushio-sama,” Kemui’s voice behind the man was low with an obvious warning. It was easily apparent she respected the man but her voice and demeanor, even if he wasn’t looking at her, easily spoke of just how easily she would take his life to keep Kumo’s secrets secret.

He closed his eyes, frowning obviously but heeding the assassin’s warning.

“Keh,” Reki already had her glasses off, slowly opening her eyes and easily glaring at the old man with red and black eyes, “Let him see,” a sinister grin split her face, “give me a reason to kill him finally…”

“Nice to see that attitude came with the black hair and eyes as well…” Uzushio sniped, eyes still closed.

A dangerous growl entered Reki’s voice as she frowned obviously at the man, “Open those eyes of yours and let me finish what I started twenty years ago…”

Pinkish brows lowered as the man frowned, still keeping his eyes closed, “I’m not foolish enough to open my eyes in the presence of an-” abruptly the old man halted his sentence, as he found a sharp blade in his back quite obviously _persuading_ him to not finish that sentence.

Reki dutifully ignored the man’s stiffness as she took a step towards him, Sharingan eyes flaring, “Finish that sentence,” a deadly growl entered her voice, “I **_dare_** you…”

“ _ENOUGH!!_ ” The Raikage bellowed, placing his hands on both Reki and Uzushio and physically separating them, “You both are here for _one_ reason, and **_ONE_** reason only!” tiny black eyes glared from one to the other, the frown on his face becoming more and more pronounced, “Now either start acting like adults and get whatever the hell you’re on about done and over with, or **_get the hell out!!_** ”after sending the both of them one final glare the large Oni crossed his arms and looked down at his daughter, proud of her, both in her fighting prowess and seeing the skittish white boy behind her, proof of the girl’s protective nature. His voice physically calmed looking upon his daughter, “I’d like to spend some time with my daughter…”

To the large Oni’s right, Reki frowned, but visibly lowered her hostility, distinctly looking away and nearly hiding her red and black eyes.

On the Oni’s left however the pink-looking haired man seemed to frown, still keeping his purple eyes closed for his own reasons but addressing the Raikage nonetheless, “you almost sound sincere.”

In an instant the Oni was back, frowning at the small man, “Listen to my voice,” there was a low threatening growl in it, “Do I sound like I’m playing old man?” there was no response from the old R&D representative. The Raikage scoffed, his voice lowering to an almost whisper directed solely at the man, “I haven’t seen _my daughter_ in years,” beady black eyes trailed to the firmly standing little girl, “You of all people should understand…”

It was barely noticeable, as the pink haired old man was extremely still, but for a moment, a small moment his lips thinned and almost seemed to form a frown.

It was enough of an ascent of the R&D representative’s cooperation that the large blonde Raikage turned to Reki who’d been facing the wall, listening but trying not to, “Do what you came here to do.”

“Yea,” the older woman nodded before turning on the small girl, looking down at her with those strange red and black eyes, “Hold still kid, I just wanna check something out…” the older woman crouched in front of the girl, staring directly at her with those red and black eyes. Yorihi wasn’t looking ‘directly’ into those eyes but even still she felt a strange chill running up her spine as the black tomoe in the red eyes started spinning as her Grandmother’s brow furrowed. After a second or two of just staring Reki reached out to grab the blue-black tabby off the girl’s shoulder…

Bachiko, of course, quite angrily disagreed. Immediately the ghost cat arched its back, raising his wispy fur and growling low with a hiss.

“Bachi-chan!” Yorihi called to the cat, he didn’t normally get agitated by people, he was quite the aloof cat normally, but his mind was suddenly very chaotic, as he was afraid of the older woman reaching for him.

Reki just frowned, her hand paused in the distance between them when the cat had started arching his back, “Don’t even know what these are yet know you don’t like ‘em, huh?” she dropped her hand and looked directly into the little girl’s hidden eyes, “If I can’t grab him, send him off somewhere a good enough distance away from you.”

“Afraid to get scratched, Taichou?” Uzushio quipped.

Several eyes immediately glared at him, having hopped the period of antagonizing was over.

Reki merely raised her hand over her shoulder and flipped him off, “Right here Uzu-teme.”

The old man gave barely a grunt, “Considering my eyes are closed, your gesture is moot.”

Hands met face and more than one person growled, “Reki!”

“What?!” the black haired woman lowered her hand, “Kids gonna see it anyway…”

“And I’d much prefer you not expose her or my son to your disrespectful tendencies so blatantly,” grey eyes glared ever so slightly, having stepped between Uzushio and the Raikage. Not far behind the woman, the nearly forgotten Nibi container was snickering.

While the ‘adults’ were having their little argument on ‘proper semantics’, Yorihi had done as her Grandmother had requested, nudging Bachiko to go off in some random corner wherever he pleased. The blue-black tabby simply glared for a moment at his master before quickly hopping off her shoulder, disappearing and reappearing on the far side of the room, as _far_ away from those creepy eyes and still keeping his master within a ‘comfortable distance’ as possible. The ‘blind’ girl could only giggle to herself, under her breath, at his poutiness.

There was a poke in the little girl’s back causing her to shift her attention over her shoulder, little Sutego had his white brows furrowed, obviously a bit confused, “Y-Yorihi-sama?”

She just smiled at him, not really getting the chance to _really_ reply.

“Alright, now that that mangy beast is off in a corner,” knuckles cracked above the children garnering their attention back to the eldest woman with her strange red and black eyes, “Let’s see if my theory is right?” quickly the woman looked the small girl up and down, her odd eyes trailing to the cat every now and then as she circled the children, seemingly looking at something no one else could see. Finally Reki took about two steps away from the children behind them and crouched, reaching out to grab something that wasn’t there, “Hey, Yorihi,” she called to the small girl, not hearing her move but assuming she was paying attention. Sutego was looking right at her, “Can you see this?”

Blue-black brows furrowed over the bandana, “See what, Baba?”

All anyone could see was Reki looked to be poking something invisible, “Hmm, you have a chakra sight right?” Yorihi barely got a chance to answer before the older woman had both hands out seemingly trying to touch something no one else could see, “Focus on the area between my hands…”

A minute frown formed on the small girl’s lips as she turned to the older woman, still she did as told, quickly shifting her eyes to their second chakra sight with ease. Part of her preferred this vision; it reminded her of the darkness in the caves as everything was black except for the outlines of chakra. That was when she understood what her Grandmother was holding; it was a chakra string, very thin and almost invisible even in her own enhanced sight. Quickly the girl moved to crouch in front of the older woman and was trailing her own finger along the line, “What is this Baba?”

Reki just smirked, “I see your eyes are better than mine,” at the curling of the girl’s curious brow the woman just kept smirking, looking at her directly with her Sharingan eyes, “I can only see this by the flow of chakra between you and that cat of yours,” the black haired woman turned to the nearly-twin-tails, who was only staring at her with narrowed vibrant blue eyes, almost pouting. She noticed the little girl was following her gaze, and presumably the ‘string’ as well, “as you can see it’s connected directly between you and that thing…”

“His name’s Bachiko,” the girl pouted at the older woman.

A black brow slightly rose as Reki looked down at the pouting girl, before a smirk picked at the side of her lips, “Well, anyway, what is this thing, and why is there a tether between you and him?”

“It’s one of the side effects that can happen when an incorporeal being relies too much on a corporeal one to live,” both parties on the ground turned to look up at the white haired assassin as she approached them, standing next to her son and looking down at both Reki and Yorihi with her serious grey eyes, “I told you there were consequences that could be dangerous about keeping him with you.”

Yorihi pouted, but couldn’t think of anything to say as she continued looking at the chakra string…

“So,” Reki stood up, closing her eyes, “You saying that thing’s reliant on her chakra?” suddenly re-blacked eyes looked at the shorter white woman, “it can’t go past a certain distance from her or something?”

There was a barest shrug from the white woman, “It’s possible,” grey eyes glanced back down at the small girl, “We didn’t notice anything out of the norm for her here, unless he helps with her chakra control?” Yorihi’s shoulders went up stiffly at the obvious disapproval of her wild chakra from her Teacher, “Although it may be why she’s had such a steep growth of chakra?” the white woman looked over her shoulder, addressing the other three just standing there watching, “Yugito, what does the Nibi have to say about this?”

All eyes turned on the shortest blonde, who looked to be wincing, “Trust me, Aneue,” she shook her head, “You don’t want to know what she’s going on about,” Yugito rubbed one of her ears as if trying to get someone to stop yelling. The twin-pony-tailed blonde stepped forward, glancing between her favorite little niece-of-sorts and the blue-black tabby that used to be such a pain in the ass for her, before giving a half-hearted smile to the older white haired assassin, “Something about foolish kittens and contracts, and a lot of stuff I really don’t understand,” she placed a hand on her hip as she looked back at the little girl and the cat, mostly the cat, “But if there’s a two way passing of chakra, and he’s stuck within the girl’s reach,” there was a grin forming on the younger woman’s face that would put Bee to shame, “We could always classify her as another Jinchuuriki, hehe.”

Grey eyes just flatly glared.

Reki just snorted, pulling out a cigarette as she turned back to yell at the two men standing off behind them, “Hey, Uzu-teme, you can do your thing now, I’m gonna go smoke if it’s all the same to you guys…”with a quick wave she turned towards the door.

“Might as well go back to work since you’re already here, Reki!” The Raikage yelled as the woman made it towards the door.

“Where you think I’m going, Raikage-sama,” there was an evil snicker from the door, “I’ve got an assistant to educate~” No one was certain, but as the door slammed shut there was questionably evil laughter.

“I hate that woman,” was the first thing said in the silence that followed. If anyone bother to look who it was they would find those purple eyes glaring at the door, Uzushio was anything but amused.

Several heads may or may not have nodded in agreement…

“What was it you wanted to check?” a large booming voice broke the awkward silence from the previous statement. The Raikage was looking directly at the seemingly-pink haired man, arms crossed and quite obviously wanting to get whatever this was done and over with quickly.

The older R&D representative simply rubbed one side of his small mustache, thinking over his words carefully, “Just now, when Reki had inquired the girl about her ‘sight’, did any of you sense a change in her chakra?” several brows rose as the gentleman took several steps forward, focusing his purple eyes on the girl most likely staring at him through that bandana, “With your permission, would you kindly remove that bandana, Tenkyuu-san?”

A blue-black brow furrowed, that was the first time anyone referred to her by her surname, before the girl turned to her Father and Teacher, “Otou-sama, Kemui-sama?”

The Raikage first looked to his white haired assassin, who simply gave a quick nod, before looking down at his daughter, crossing his arms, “Take it off, Yorihi.”

With a quick nod the girl raised a pale hand, tucking a finger under the rim of the dark blue bandana and tugging it down. It had been at least two years since she had done this, and even then it was still in relative darkness and only in the presence of a blind old man and her cat. She couldn’t help the odd nervousness crawling up her spine, or the sudden gulp as she realized they were all staring at her, “W-what?”

“Yorihi-chan…” Yugito was the first to find her voice, her face missing its usual joviality as her mouth stayed open in awe.

“What?!” the girl’s brows furrowed more prominently, anger slipping into her confusion. – _What are they staring at?_ -

“Undoubtedly they are still active,” Uzushio was rubbing his mustache again, seemingly the least affected by the reveal of the girl’s eyes. Purple ones narrowed, trying to get a better look, “I’ve never seen a Byakuugan develop like this… when was the last time you turned them off?”

“Off?” Yorihi just tilted her head, not really paying attention to the surprise in their eyes and not understanding what the old guy meant, “it’s been too long honestly,” she scratched her cheek nervously, “there’s really no way to tell time in pure darkness…” there was a nervous chuckle, “I didn’t even know I’d been there for four years until Tougemichi told me when we were leaving…”

The adults just blinked… that was as far as ‘being surprised’ as Yorihi figured she’d see on their faces.

“Kemui?” The Raikage turned to the smaller white woman, questions written all over his face.

Grey eyes merely glanced at him, slightly wider than normal although he was probably the only one that would notice, “I haven’t felt a distinct fluctuation in her eyes since I picked her up,” the Assassin admitted, turning back to her once-student, “Even during her match there was no halting of the flow,” grey eyes stared at the girl, obvious concern in them and Yorihi didn’t know why, “If she altered the sight, the chakra difference is either too minuscule for us to notice or her control is actual far greater then I realized…”

That was saying a lot, and Yorihi was probably the only one in the room that understood the full implications of that statement. She remembered what Tougemichi had told her about the Assassins’ skills, control was absolute to them, if her Teacher couldn’t sense when she shifted from her ‘normal’ sight to the ‘chakra’ sight… well… she wasn’t really sure what to think. Having her eyes on had become integral, it was as essential to her now as breathing, and switching between the ‘normal’ sight and ‘chakra’ sight had become as simple as blinking, it had been _essential_ during her training in the darkness. The only way to track most things in the caves was by the fact they were alive…

All the young girl’s surprise and concern was voiced simply, “Kemui-sama?”

Something soft entered her Teacher’s eyes, though Yorihi felt only those that knew the woman would be able to see it, before the white haired Assassin kneelt before the young girl. For a long moment grey stared directly into white, the first in a long time, the concern seeming to grow as the woman reached out and cupped the girl’s face, running her thumb under her eyes, “Do you feel that, Yorihi-hime?”

Obvious blue-black brows furrowed, “Feel what, Kemui-sama?”

That strange softness again as the woman’s thumb continued to trail a line under the girl’s eye, “It seems there is some damage from having your eyes active for too long,” the hand slipped away while the girl only continued to stare confused. A small frown picked at the older woman’s lips as she slipped her left hand behind her and withdrew her blade, bringing it close to the girl’s eyes, “Look.”

Yorihi’s brows remained furrowed, not understanding the actions or the concern on her Teacher’s face; it was strange and unfamiliar to her. – _Then again… I haven’t seen her for four years… how would I know what she ‘normally’ looks like now?_ \- the thought caused her to pout as she did as her Teacher instructed, not understanding what looking at her blade would do…

That’s when she saw, for the first time in years she actually _saw_ her eyes… and around them. Where before, she remembered as a child every time her eyes activated veins would bulge out on the sides of her head, it was theorized the veins were engorged chakra pathways bulging with the increased chakra draw to the eyes. Chances were, as Kemui had instructed her, there were corresponding veins and arteries, real ones that carried increased blood flow to and from the strange white eyes. When she was young she had liked her active eyes, they were fierce, and they were **_hers_** … now… now they looked placid.

She blinked, and it was only then she realized she didn’t even register the movement visually or physically, the only reason she really knew she did it was because her eyebrows twitched and the reflection in the blade did so. This caused her quite the concern as she raised her own hand to run along the skin below her eyes, skin that had years ago been riddled with the bulging veins common to the Byakuugan… now… there were no bulges, perhaps the barest of raised skin under her fingertips that she couldn’t even feel aside from her hands…

No, there were lines… thin, purplish black lines that seemed to trace where the veins **_were_** … but now she could neither feel with her hands or in her face… and her eyes… they were white and still, even when she knew her focus was shifting to other places, like her Father’s or Kemui’s faces the white reflected in the blade did not move a micrometer. The point where a pupil was on a normal person was tiny, instead of the normal tightening of the skin over the eye causing it to look enlarged… it was smaller and more invisible then if her eyes were off…

What the hell was going on!!

Without thinking the girl had grabbed her Teacher’s wrist, trembling as she could not pull herself away from the sight of eyes so unfamiliar to her…

Everyone else was silent, unsure what to say at this point.

Until there was a cough from the lone ‘stranger’, “I will make my report to Section B, they’ll want to know about these developments.” The man was stiff, his voice businesslike, but something about his propriety told Yorihi that was perhaps the most courteous thing he thought he could do at the moment. The man gave a nod of a bow to the Raikage, “Raikage-sama,” nodding to Yugito, Yorihi and even Sutego clutching to her old kimono, before standing tall and turning purple eyes on the white haired Assassin, addressing her in a barely audible voice, “Kemui-chan.”

A back step and the R&D representative vanished, not before catching the courteous nod from the white haired woman kneeling before the Raikage’s daughter.

No sooner was the man gone before Yorihi bit her bottom lip and leapt into her Teacher’s arms as tears streamed down her face and dampened the woman’s kimono.

Kemui could only sigh lightly, giving the barest of smiles to both her student and her son, who looked very, very confused.

There was a long, highly dramatic sigh behind them, “Damn Aneue,” the woman looked over her shoulder at the blonde woman as Yugito rubbed her shoulder, “I don’t know _how_ you put up with all this pressure all the time,” the cat-woman’s black eyes became extremely flat, “I feel like I’m going to keel over and I haven’t even _done_ anything strenuous… nyaa~”

There may or may not have been a giggle into the white woman’s shoulder, her son obviously pursing his lips tightly shut so as not to openly laugh.

Kemui could only look back at the younger woman, “Years of practice,” was her curt answer, garnering only a groan from the Jinchuuriki. The white haired woman faced forward, perhaps tightening her grip around the child refusing to let go, “Thank you though, for coming Yugito.”

The feline Jinchuuriki perked up at that, “Huh?” blinking surprised iron black eyes, “Why wouldn’t I come?” a Cheshire grin spread on the young woman’s face, “I haven’t seen my _niece_ in years, hehe…”

Grey eyes flatly glanced at the woman-formed cat.

Yorihi happened to choose that moment to put away her sniffles, lean back, and glance between the two women. Something about the way her Teacher acted with Yugito reminded her of how Bachi-can acted around the woman. A smile spread on the girl’s face, she truly did miss being _home_ …

Grey eyes caught the girl’s smile from the corner of her eye, inevitably causing the normally so hard Assassin to _lightly_ smile as well, “feeling better, Yorihi-hime?”

“Mm,” the girl gave a slight nod, seemingly looking down, “Kemui-sama… I… I just…”

A pale hand trailed along the side of the girl’s head, grabbing a now longer braid and fiddling with it, garnering the girl’s attention, “You don’t have to know or understand everything right now,” cloudy grey eyes moved from the braid to the girl’s odd white eyes, “This is something even we had no idea could happen,” she flicked the end of the young girl’s braid at her, causing the pale girl’s nose to twitch, “let alone _what_ it is…”

Yorihi twitched her nose again, trying not to give into the odd grin that was trying to from on her lips as she realized her Teacher was trying to _play_ with her. – _Kemui-sama…?_ \- it seemed like such a strange thing, but a glance at Sutego and she realized how much her Teacher must have changed since she was gone… how much softer the woman allowed herself to be now. Yorihi allowed the grin to spread, “Mm,” she gave a quick nod, “Hai, Kemui-sama…”

There was still a heavy amount of concern in the woman’s grey eyes as she shifted to let Yorihi stand on her own as the Assassin stood, “We will figure this out,” and a light, caring smile passed her pale lips.

One Yorihi reflected, giving a firm nod.

“Ya know,” Yugito leaned in between the two, Cheshire grin in place, “We could always just classify her as a Jinchuuriki and let Bee and I train her?”

Grey eyes stared flatly at the blonde woman, “No,” she reached on pale hand out, calling her son over who quickly latched on, happy to have something ‘sensible’ and familiar.

The cat-woman pouted, “Why not?”

“Because,” The Raikage stepped forward, arms crossed and looking fierce down at the feline Jinchuuriki, “My daughter is going to go through the Academy and the Crash Course,” a smirk rose on the Oni’s lips as he looked down at _his_ daughter proudly, “And I know she’s going to pass with ease!”

A similar grin passed Yorihi’s lips, infectious like her Father’s pride, “Of course, Otou-sama!!”

Black-iron eyes flatly glanced at the girl, “You don’t even know what the ‘Crash Course’ is…” she lazily reached out and flicked one of the girl’s braids.

Yorihi only had the dignity to pout. Yes, she had no idea what this ‘Crash Course’ was but her Father said she could pass it, meaning it was like a test, and she’d passed many tests in her previous training!!

Off to the side, Kemui shook her head, “It’s a minimum requirement for shinobi Yugito,” there was a light sigh as the cat gave her a flat look, “And Lord Raikage has already made the arrangements…”

Yugito just kept pouting, “I didn’t have to do it…”

Kemui just shook her head, turning towards the door, tugging her son along, “There are certain _special_ cases where it can be skipped…”

“Like being a Jinchuuriki,” the blonde mumbled, before standing straight, grinning down at Yorihi, “Guess that’s it for today,” that Cheshire grin returned as the girl tilted her head and furrowed her brows, “See ya Yorihi-chan~” then raised her hand with a wave.

Blue-black brows furrowed deeper as she ‘looked’ from Yugito to her Teacher, “Kemui-sama, are you leaving already?”

The white woman turned back, “Yugito and I have a prior engagement,” grey eyes pointedly looked at the nervously laughing blonde before gazing softer at the small girl, “Besides, I’m sure you would like some time alone with your Father…”

That made Yugito sigh and give up, giving a wave to the small girl and trot over to the assassin and her son.

Yorihi could only pout as she watched the two women and Sutego leave, managing a wave when the small white haired boy enthusiastically waved back before opening the door, and catching the look her Teacher sent her Father, before she too nodded her goodbyes and nearly dragging Yugito out with them.

When the door shut, there was silence.

For a moment Yorihi pouted, the rest of her ‘family’ having left and all the weird ‘reveals’ of the day, not to mention the fight and having to deal with all the Company Commanders… it had been a long day. – _It feels like it’s been months…_ \- she couldn’t help but sigh, grateful when she felt Bachiko return to her side and nuzzle a leg.

That is until she felt something tug around her kimono back and pull her up off the ground, “Eep!” she gave a shameless squeak of surprise.

Which was easily answered by bellowing laughter as the Raikage navigated his small daughter to sit around his neck, like she had long ago. A grin found its way to the large man’s dark face when she clung to him, trying to not fall off, along with the odder feeling of that strange ghostly feline setting itself on his shoulder next to her, “Hmp,” the large men grinned, crossing his arms, “You look like you’ve had a long day, Yorihi-chan…”

After getting her barrings, balance, and realizing where she was, Yorihi couldn’t help but grin, hugging around her Father’s head, “Mm,” she tugged the bandana around her neck up, covering her eyes and finding a huge comfort in the familiar feel, “it has been a very long day, Otou-sama…”

“Hehe,” the large man moved to the back entrance of his throne-room, the one that lead to the hall with his private quarters, and of course his daughter’s as well, “Well, you’re going to have to tell me all about you adventure in the mountains…”

“Adventure?” a blue-black brow rose, mirrored by a certain cat’s brow.

The large Raikage gave another laugh, “Of course, _My Daughter_ , off on an adventure training in the mountains!!” the large blonde grin wide as he heard her laughter above him.

“I-I don’t think Tougemichi would be happy to call his training an ‘adventure’, Otou-sama,” the smile would not leave the girl’s face, just the idea of her and her Teacher’s stern master hearing how her Father called his training ‘an adventure’, like some kid’s story… he’d  be so livid!

“Tougemichi, huh?” the Raikage bumped his shoulder, causing a squeal from the young girl, “You’ll have to tell me all about him, Kemui certainly never has…” this garnered another giggle from the girl on his shoulders and he could help but smile.

 Four years he hadn’t seen her, and part of him had worried that over that time he’d go back to his old ways, forget about her and see her again as only a resource to his village…Instead, he couldn’t have been more proud to see her walk in behind his Assassin, then strong enough to beat Bee’s genin and hold her own in the crowd of Company Commanders. Like that silly liger Commander had said, she was his daughter, no doubt about it, and he was happy she was finally back home.

\-----

Raiga - Liger

Uzushio – swirling tides


	4. Larry, Curly, and Moe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of class...

“Class, I would like to introduce a new student that will be joining us for this final semester,” the tall fearsome woman waved a tattooed arm towards the small figure at her side. The girl was small, made even more so by standing next to the imposing woman that was Ruri. Her small black eyes turned back to the class, “She is participating in the crash course, meaning she will take half her classes with you and the other half in specialized courses designed to catch her up for graduation.”

Several murmurs cut through the class, most too low to fully register but Yorihi was sure the content was all about her…

There was a sudden burst of killing intent from the large woman at her right, nearly comparable to anyone in her family. – _It must be a jounin skill_ \- the young girl wondered, for while her new sensei’s killing intent was impressive, it was nothing compared to what her Teacher and Tougemichi could produce… not even mentioning her Father when angry…

But the effect was clear, the other students all stiffened, afraid of the very _real_ killing intent, enough to shut up and pay attention as they were supposed to. Once all eyes were on her, Ruri continued, “You _will_ be respectful to your new classmate, as myself and the other sensei have already evaluated her skills,” a _slight_ malicious grin may or may not have piqued on the older woman’s lips, “And believe me when I say she _deserves_ passing leagues ahead of you maggots…”

Several gulps were heard, but even more resentful eyes turned towards Yorihi… she imagined her Father; how he handled the jounin Company Commanders… she would not fear or bow to children when she had already faced them.

Small black eyes turned to the girl as the woman in the sari spoke directly to her, “Introduce yourself as you see fit or take a seat… there are lessons to be had.”

- _And no time to waste_ \- Yorihi could practically hear from the woman’s body language, if not her fierce tattooed eyes. The ‘blind’ girl merely gave a nod, taking several steps forward, and instead of stopping and introducing herself she merely walked past the first row, the second, third and finally stopped at the fourth and last, taking an available seat; both in the sensei’s line of sight and as far away from the students as possible.

The tattooed woman, Ruri-sensei she would have to now get used to calling, simply watched her with those fierce eyes, nodded silently and turned to begin class, the disruption done and over with.

Yorihi found it hard to tell if the woman approved or disapproved of her lacking an address to her fellow students… or her not even acknowledging them. She could feel Bachiko in the back of her mind, giving a hissing giggle at the foolish young _children_ as he sat in the rafters literally looking down on all of them. Yorihi tried to ignore him and his ‘ _comments_ ’, slightly annoyed to have brought him now… even if technically she _couldn’t_ leave him to his own devices after that talk with her Grandmother. – _Baba could see the tether, just as I did… if I left him it would hurt him…_ \- no one in her family seemed to have any _real_ idea what all that new information had meant, about her eyes and Bachiko’s dependency on her, they were things only theorized, never quite put into practice…

Even with Jinchuuriki, and some people that became infused with demon chakra like the ‘Gold and Silver Brothers’ from her great-grandfather’s reign, whom Kemui-sama made her study up on after learning about this ‘condition’ she now had, no one, not even R&D had any _real_ idea what her connection to Bachiko fully meant. Mostly because demons don’t ‘normally’ attach themselves to people ‘willingly’, or in such extremes for survival… if such happened, no one had ever made mention of it or the person and demon typically perished shortly after. ‘Normal’ humans were incapable of providing the chakra required to sustain a demon, yet she and Bachiko had managed somehow. Kemui-sama theorized it was because of the extreme environment, the training, their ‘bond’ to begin with… just too many unknown variables that had never been put into place before.

She almost wanted to agree with Yugito-nee-chan. – _They should just classify me as a seal-less-Jinchuuriki and let her and Oji-chan train me…_ \- the young girl had pouted, about as much as the feline-Jinchuuriki had when both the Raikage and Last Assassin had shot the idea down flat… they already had ‘plans’ for the girl and weren’t going to have her go off them just because of her a new ‘power-boost’…

Bachiko had been very little help, as it allowed him to stay with _his_ Master more… just warned against anyone seeing him, as no one had any idea how people would react if they noticed a nearly-twin-tailed cat following around the Raikage’s daughter…

Even _that_ had become an ‘issue’… sure, her Father, Teacher, Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother and anyone else that vaguely knew her, was an adult that already _knew_ who she was, so they were proud when she boldly stated her title… but now that she was ‘going to school’ with ‘normal’ shinobi trainees, they had _suggested_ she keep that information to herself if possible.

She was starting to think they knew something she didn’t and this was all a kind of test… Tougemichi had certainly taught her to never take anything at face value, there was always a way around things, always another meaning to the task at hand.

She raised her head when Ruri-sensei barked orders and slammed her hand on the blackboard. – _What was the point of this ‘test’?_ \- even though she _could_ see, she blatantly ignored it, relying more on her other senses and getting used to the jumbling feel of so many living things nearby. Perhaps that was it, getting used to people? She’d spent the last four years in darkness with only the company of a stranger and her cat, and before that in was only her family, or those that would _become_ her family. Now she knew there was far more out there, beyond those two domains; the Jounin Commanders, the world outside the village, what vague memories she bother to scratch at of her time ‘before’ her home.

– _suppose it’s time I was actually outside doing something…_ \- she’d been spending her entire life training, to enhance her abilities, to get stronger for her family’s sake… in the back of her mind she had ‘known’ it was to become a shinobi… - _Guess I just didn’t expect I’d have to take a ‘class’ and be evaluated to be one…_ \- a small frown may or may not have picked at her lips. She knew there was no reason for her to feel ‘special’ or get any kind of different treatment… but…

A quick scan of the room and already she could tell barely half of the shinobi-potentials bothered, and fewer then what remained were worth even noticing. Some were studious and with training could make something of themselves, others didn’t seem to care really. Bachiko nudged the back of her mind, gearing her attention towards one of the boys, he was wearing a really dumb hat but what had Bachi-chan giggling like the cat he was, was the odd creature sitting on the kid’s head.

Yorihi could only cock a brow, it was something she’d never seen before, kind of like a mole only a whole lot bigger and with black, white grey hair. Perhaps the kid was from a clan that trained those animals and would be worth her time, Bachi-chan seemed quite interested… though that may have just been his hiss-giggling at the… whatever-it-was.

“Yorihi!” the girl’s head snapped to the commanding voice of the fierce woman. Ruri-sensei seemed to have a troublemaker in a lock, holding his head down with him on his knees while holding out one arm behind him, it looked rather painful, “Can you tell me what would result if I continued this hold?”

Blue-black brows furrowed, “I can’t actually ‘see’ the hold, sensei,” she made a display of putting her hands on the desk in front of her. Even if Yorihi _could_ see every detail of what was going on in front of her she knew she had to keep up the illusion she couldn’t… and honestly she often wished she was back in the dark world of the caves. Kemui-sama had told her any time someone asked her something she could ‘see’, since most people would do so without consideration of her bandana or her status as ‘blind’, completely forgetting, she was to make it look like she were using another sense to compensate; sound, scent, touch. Most people wouldn’t even think about it, though in their line of work, and what she was to be training for, she had to always be careful, there were always those that were smarter than most and picked up details quickly. The three new sensei she had clearly fell into this category, as the woman’s sharp black eyes were on her, completely ignoring the whimpering student at her feet…

It only took a moment but Yorihi could definitely ‘ _feel_ ’, better than see, what the potential damage would be, “Given another few minutes his arm will pop out of its socket, causing pain and the arm to be immobile,” dislocated joints were not something unheard, or unfelt, by her. She gave an unconscious shutter.

The older woman seemed to give the barest of nods, only _slightly_ adjusting her position so as to not pop the kid’s arm out sooner. Yorihi winced, “Very good,” she made an adjustment of her wrist, twisting the kid’s arm and pressing her thumb at the base of his wrist, “can anyone tell me what this would do, if I were to apply pressure for too long?”

Only one hand went up, and it wasn’t the blind girl at the back of the class…

“Xiao,” the fearsome tattooed woman nodded towards a girl with dark skin and dusky-pink hair in the second row, conveniently right next to the boy with the stupid hat and odd animal.

The girl gave a nod, lowering her hand and standing up as if to get a better look, “the pressure applied by your thumb and the twist will eventually cause the connecting joints for the ulna and radius in the wrist to separate, along with others of the small bones there,” a dark hand pointed to the boy’s upper arm, “Due to the twisting, if the wrist doesn’t give first, and the appropriate pressure is applied a spiral fracture could form, resulting in a break…”

“Very good,” the blonde sensei seemed to toss the boys arm with little consideration, giving him a stern look before nudging her head, silently telling him to get back to his seat. The boy seemed to be whimpering as he held his wrist, the one that had been captive, close to his chest and slunk to an open seat. Ruri simply crossed her muscular arms, ignoring the boy and addressing the rest of the class, “Disabling your opponent is the most important thing you can do,” her voice boomed, garnering the attention of every student, “Holds and moves such as those I’ve showed you require no chakra, only leverage, even someone as tiny as Yorihi,” she nodded to the girl in the back of the room, who bristled at the attention, “Could take down someone two, even three times her size given the right leverage…”

Yorihi tried hard not to pout… she had been avoiding recognizing that she was indeed smaller then every other child in this room. All of them had to at least be a year older than her, others probably more… did not change the fact she was ‘tiny’ by comparison. A certain ghost-cat up in the rafters giggled.

Someone raised a hand, a blonde boy, “But sensei, wouldn’t it be faster to just kill them?”

“A valid question,” the older woman nodded, acknowledging it, even if her entire body language screamed she was about to utterly refute it. She turned back to the class, “You are all training to be genin, but don’t think for a second you can take out anyone higher then you,” for some reason Yorihi felt those black eyes were staring directly at her, “You are inexperienced in killing and have no real idea what it means or how to take another’s life…”

- _Not all of us sensei…_ \- Yorihi stilled as her hand twitched.

“As genin, your goal is to survive,” the tall woman’s voice bellowed, gaining another layer to it few could decipher, even Yorihi, “While killing is quick, and often easier, you will not be able to do so with the ease a jounin, even some chuunin can command,” she paused long enough to let that sink in, perhaps in hopes they understood a small fraction of what she was saying. Yorihi’s hand tightened as the woman continued, “it would be quicker for you to disable your opponents, as it takes less time to break or pop out someone’s arm then to lament over cutting their throat…”

_That_ Yorihi understood. She doubted there was a reason the woman worded it that specifically, but _that_ she understood without a doubt. Her pale hands curled into fists on the top of her desk, the shadow of the feelings she felt then, of the blade in her hand, threatening to unlock the other memories of death around her.

“Besides,” there was an odd, almost jovial tone that entered the woman’s voice, “Breaking an arm might not only disable your opponent for the moment at hand,” a strange toothy grin spread on her face, “But if unattended, such a break could heal improperly, making that arm effectively useless, meaning you’ve disabled that opponent for years to come, and that, students,” a glint entered the woman’s black eyes, something serious and unforgiving, “could be far more valuable than taking their life.”

A bell rang, releasing the students from the spell their sensei had woven.

“Class dismissed,” the stern teacher was back, crossing her arms and watching her students grab their things, “study up on the grappling during your free time, we will be putting it to use later…”

“HAI SENSEI!!” most of them yelled out, Yorihi only cringed.

The blind girl waited the necessary time that all the students had rushed out, not having wanted to deal with the crowd and knowing she could easily make it in time to wherever she was headed next. Once the last students were trickling out the girl stood up and proceeded down the rows to the front of the class to leave, Bachiko above her traversing the rafters and making his way to the wall above the door.

“Yorihi,” it was that soothing voice the woman had used during her fight with Omoi and Karui, before handing her Kuri’s beat-rods, “Come here.”

Without thinking the young girl’s feet brought her to the woman’s desk.

Small black eyes stared at her over tented tattooed hands, “I hope you don’t mind my trying to include you today.”

A small frown may have picked at Yorihi’s lips but she schooled her features, shaking her head, “I do not mind sensei, you do as you see fit…”

Black eyes scanned the small girl whose face was harder to read then some jounin, partially thanks to it mostly being covered by that bandana, “I do it for you,” she said bluntly, trying to ascertain if that affecting the girl or not, “Your previous teacher, Kemui-sensei, has informed us of your previous training…” there may have been a small stiffening at the mention of the assassin, “physically you are impressive for your age, having the stamina and endurance of a jounin, but there are other things I’m sure you’ve noticed you lack…”

“Like what sensei?” Yorihi only asked in an attempt to ignore it.

Those blonde brows furrowed, crinkling the black tattoos attached to them that surrounded the woman’s eyes, “You’re not well adjusted around others,” this time it was easy to see the girl shutter, “take my lesson into consideration, for it is not merely physical wounds that could be permanently disabling to a shinobi…”

“H-hai… sensei,” with that Yorihi lowered head, taking a step back and turning towards the door, ignoring the feel of the woman’s small black eyes on her back.

Kurogami Ruri was only the first of her new sensei…

\-----

“Class,” the commanding male voice of Kuri-sensei broke through the open air. The class had moved outside, on to one of the nearby cliff-faces, it was the first time Yorihi had been out on one of the peeks with so obvious a threat of falling. The blew harder and colder up here, yet surprisingly the calm, chubby large man’s soft, tempered voice carried with ease. The students were standing in formation, something Yorihi had never seen and felt rather out of place with, so yet again she had lingered to the back of the group, standing as closely behind on of the taller students as possible to make it look like she was ‘in formation’, she honestly doubted the large chubby man wouldn’t notice…

“Today is the first of hopefully your final year,” his thin dark eyes scanned every face in the lineup, briskly hovering over Yorihi’s covered eyes,  “But do not fret, we are here to train you, if you fail, we **_will_** take you back and train you again,” there was a bark to his voice that made some of the lesser students jump, even though they tried valiantly to remain in formation, Yorihi didn’t move a muscle, her Father was louder and harsher.

“But that is not here, nor today,” the large chubby man with the thin eyes stood firmly in front of the formation, direct center and seemingly looking at them all at once, “Today, we will be testing if any of you are capable of a chakra affinity yet, if you are, you will be given extra training to hone and test your elemental affinity, if not…” his voice seemed to lower, linger as several students had cringed at the mention of ‘more work’, “Then you will continue your chakra training, bolstering your reserves, control and mastering basic ninjutsu abilities that will be integral to you in the field…” those thin dark eyes seemed to catch on something, and a sinking feeling entered Yorihi’s stomach, “YORIHI!! Front and center!!”

The young girl was unfamiliar with the command but did the first thing that came to mind… she jumped, literally, over the formation of students and landed directly in front of their sensei, holding her body as ridged and firm as possible… only really to stop herself from shaking at how frazzled she felt in this unfamiliar territory.

The bald man’s thin eyes stared down at her directly, no obvious emotions lingering on his face as he seemed to be looking for something, “Have you been introduced to the class?”

The small girl’s shoulder’s slumped slightly – ** _That_** _was why he called me forward?_ \- a slight frown showed on her face against her will, “Yes… Sensei.”

“No she hasn’t!!” a voice called from the crowd.

The frown deepened on the girl’s face as she tried to pinpoint the speaker with some difficulty.

The large man seemed to only shift his thin eyes to the crowd of students, “Were you the one being addressed, Denbou?”

The neat formation of students split like a river around a rock, showing a boy with dusty brown hair and dark green eyes, somewhat larger than the others. From what little Yorihi could sense from the boy he didn’t seem like much of a threat. As their sensei stood tall and still, continuing to stare directly at him and his shaking got worse under the chubby man’s scrutiny, the thought of this large _boy_ being any kind of threat was utterly demolished.

“N-no, sensei…” those dark green eyes went straight to the ground, trying to avoid the larger man’s stern gaze.

“Hm, then it was not your turn to speak,” thin eyes gazed at the scattered students, “BACK IN FORMATION!!” and like a well-oiled machine the kids were back in their ranks, obviously it was something they were quite familiar with. Then the large man barely tilted his chin down, gaze back on the one that stood out, “Is this true?”

Yorihi had to suppress the urge to bite her lip, instead pressing her lips together firmly before responding, “Ruri-sensei gave me the option, introduce myself or sit, I had been presented, there was no need to further waste time.”

Those thin eyes seemed to stare a long moment, again discerning something she could not decipher, “Very well,” his gaze shifted to the rest of the class, “PAY ATTENTION!!” he barked before looking back down at Yorihi sternly, “This is how we deal with liars…”

Before Yorihi could even react the large man had formed a series of seals in his hand and thrust his palm into the ground right in front of her…

Then out of nowhere earth erupted from the ground, striking her in the chest and sent her flying…

The girl’s bearings were fried, her senses going into overdrive as she could hear shouts and screams, feel the rumble in the ground as spine after spine after spine of earth jumped from the ground and tossed her every time she got even remotely close… it was dizzying and painful, but somewhere in the back of her mind she could feel **_him_** screaming to grab hold of something…

The weightlessness she felt seemed to last longer after this juggle, allowing her mind to sit straight enough to take in the world around her. She couldn’t feel anything but wind, couldn’t hear or smell anything because of it too and all she could focus on with those senses were her heart rate going sky-high… - _I’m falling…_ \- this seemed to register in her mind, her eyes were active and straight and she was falling, getting closer and closer and…

A **_ROAR_** cut into the back of her mind, Bachiko was watching her fall and she was going over the edge…

- _I’M FALLING!!_ \- something in her seemed to snap as her reflexes from the caves decided to flip back on. In an instant she rolled around, slamming both hands together to focus on her chakra. All she needed was a moment… normally – _Just work… please, please, PLEASE!! Just work!!_ \- she could feel her chakra brimming, wild and untamed in this wide world, unobstructed by the ravenous appetite of the mountain… she just needed to get enough of it to **MOVE** …

- _WORK!!_ \- feeling her hands burn she twisted around, facing away from the platform and held her hands out, exerting a burst of chakra from both hands that gave her enough raw drift to get closer to the edge…

There were several gasps in the background…

… as soon as the burst cut out, the young girl twisted around, just in time to see the crowd of genin-hopefuls with their eyes wide and jaws hanging, that _bastard’s_ thin eyes impassive as she barely missed the edge of the rock outcropping…

Yorihi growled, grit her teeth and felt fury… it may have been coming from Bachiko as he couldn’t _do_ anything, but it was enough to focus her chakra as she put it into her hands and reached out with claw-bent fingers and stabbed them directly into the mountainside. – _I AM **NOT** FALLING TODAY!!_ -

Her chakra burned as her finger bled, digging deep into the rock side, kicking up pebbles and shrapnel into her face. It wasn’t enough, she was still falling quickly. She suddenly felt like channeling her Grandmother and Tougemichi at once as she yelled at the top of her lungs while kicking her feet into the mountainside, “ _SCREW THIS!!”_

Vaguely, a part of her mind told her Kemui-sama would highly disapprove…

The rest of her didn’t quite care as with the added friction of her chakra laced feet and ‘claws’ in digging into the rock she finally came to a stop. Panting, jittery, and furious, but stopped all the same.

For a moment everything was quiet, aside from the pounding in her head and the pain in her fingers… she was also half convinced her shoes may have been worn down some. – _Mei-chan is going to kill me…_ -

Then there was a raucous roar from the top of the mountain.

Focusing her sight up, as she could barely feel anything beyond the bloody pain in her fingers, she saw a veritable crowd of moving bodies, seemingly cheering and shouting down at her. She couldn’t help but curl a brow, confused by what was going on…

“I am impressed,” her head jerked to the left, and there, standing horizontally as if it were the easiest thing in the world, was Kuri-sensei, arms behind his like normal as his thin eyes stared passively right at her. At first, she thought he was looking at her the same as before, but moving her sight up she could see his mostly hidden brows raised behind his cocked hitae-ate and moving that scar on his forehead the formed an ‘X’ with the forehead-protector, “You are the first student I’ve seen catch themselves before I could retrieve them…”

Blue-black brows seemed to only cur, confused.

“Now make your way back up,” he said clippedly as he began simply _walking_ up the side of the mountain.

Yorihi could only stare for the most part. She’d never _seen_ someone walk on walls… sure she’d tampered with chakra to help hold her on the cave walls, and Bachiko walked wherever he pleased but he was a chakra-entity, he didn’t actually have weight to deal with… right? Flashbacks of being _crushed_ by him in his ‘big form’ told her otherwise… but still… to see a _human_ do it… that was new…

There was a nudge on her foot, and without turning her head she could see Bachiko, once again walking on the mountainside as if it were the ground, trying to push her foot forward.

Her hand flexed, hurting from the cuts of being thrust into the mountainside coated in wild chakra, the chakra itself doing about as much damage as the mountain, while her legs were shaking and tense from the position.

Bachiko nudged again, this time with a growl and a few choice words in the back of her mind…

“Okay, okay, I get it!!” she growled back at him, trying to focus her chakra into her feet like her sensei was doing… well, she hoped like he was doing otherwise she was going to have to try catching herself again…

If Kuri had heard her muttering to her cat under her breath he made no mention, only walking _just_ ahead of her as she half crawled, half-climbed up the mountainside with him. Not quite ‘wall-walking’, not quite mountain-climbing, but it was enough to get her over the top and that was all that mattered…

She’d done it herself, without intervention…

Yorihi immediately sprawled on the ground once she made it over the cusp, feeling Bachiko going back to his incorporeal state so none of the other students would see him… and so she couldn’t find him and knock him on the head for the amount of gloating he was doing... – _Could have taught me this sooner, you jerk-cat!!_ -

It felt like he just flicked a tail at her, ignoring her gripping…

She groaned…

“Hey, hold still,” something spoke above her; it wasn’t Kuri-sensei, nor any other adult she knew. Suddenly there was renewed pain in her hand and she couldn’t help sucking in air between her teeth in a hiss, someone was picking up her hand, “Hold still! I’m trying to clean the wounds!!”

“Hey, how is she Xiao-chan?” another voice called nearby…

- _Xiao?_ \- that sounded familiar… wasn’t that that pink-haired girl from her previous class that Ruri-sensei called on?

“Gee, Oku, she only just got tossed a hundred feet and shoved her hands into a mountain, how do you think she is?!” as Yorihi’s sight focused she spotted two students hovering over her… it was the dusky-pink haired girl with the dark skin who was wrapping bandages around her fingers on one hand while that boy with the stupid hat was leaning on her other side, inspecting her other hand. It really hurt, and was rather annoying…

With a grunt Yorihi tried taking back her hands.

Immediately the girl, Xiao dropped her hand, which _hurt_ and put both hands on her shoulders, “Get her legs, Oku!! Keep her still!!” the boy, named ‘Oku’, apparently decided the best thing to do was just lay flat on her legs… that was _really_ annoying!

“Get… _OFF!!_ ” chakra started rushing to the small girl’s extremities, her fingers burned with it and her legs nearly kicked the boy off the cliff before the girl lifted her shoulders enough to slam the ‘blind’ girl hard on the ground, knocking the wind out of her and set her about seeing stars.

“Will you calm down!!” the dusky-pinkette growled, placing both hands on the sides of the girl’s mostly covered face to set her head straight, “We’re _trying_ to help you!!” it was at this moment Yorihi got a very good look at her eyes, blazing bright blood red eyes, “It’s bad enough you’re chakra’s burning you, but you literally cut the hell up out of your hands with that stunt,” Xiao mercilessly dropped the squirming girl’s head, “Be glad I’m here,” there was a distinct grunt as those fiery red eyes went back to their task at hand, the girl’s dark hands picking up Yorihi’s bloody one, “Sensei’s corralling the other morons, and I’m the only one here that bothered to take first aid seriously,” there was a tight squeeze on her hands that made Yorihi wince, apparently Xiao had tied off that hand as she grabbed for the other one, “otherwise you’d be left out here, hands bleeding until you either passed out or class was over…”

“Sensei wouldn’t do that,” the boy, with the silly hat chirped in, apparently he was blonde, a darker blonde  but if Yorihi’s eyes weren’t completely off by that crack the girl gave her it was blonde nonetheless. He rubbed the top of his brow, glancing at the downed girl with soft sea foam green eyes and a chipped tooth grin, “Don’t believe her, she’s making things up…”

“Bullshit I’m making things up,” the red-eyed girl growled around a bandage she was ripping in half, “Remember when he tossed Saji off that cliff and cracked his skull? Or Fero when she got tossed against that rock, cracking those ribs? Who was it that bandaged them up because sensei’s version of ‘checking them over’ is barking at them to ‘walk it off’…” she lazily ripped another strip, red-eyes flat on the dark blonde boy.

“Eh-heh,” he looked embarrassed, scratching his head, “Well, ever thought sensei leaves them to it cause he knows you’ll look ‘em over?” the boy’s blonde brows came up in the center, like he was trying to appeal to the dark skinned girl’s ‘good nature’, “After all, it’s good practice for an aspiring medical-nin…”

Xiao rolled her eyes, “whatever,” before going back to bandaging up Yorihi’s hands, “As for you,” the girl’s voice got a harsh tone, obviously zeroing in on Yorihi, “Don’t go pulling a stunt like this again, you hear!” red-eyes were glaring hotly at the blind girl, “It’s bad enough you act like you’re better than the rest of us, don’t go doing something stupid that’ll get you killed…”

- _It wouldn’t…_ \- Yorihi wanted to protest, glaring at the girl… all she managed was a slight frown.

Oku was frowning too, but for a different reason, “Ya know Xiao-chan,” the blonde turned to the dusky-pinkette, “She can’t see you’re patented ‘Mom’-glare…”

He got a fist in the shoulder for his efforts, “Shut up, Oku!!”

The irony was that Yorihi _could_ see them, not that she could ever tell them… and they certainly looked funny. Without realizing it she started snickering at their antics.

“Oh not you too,” red-eyes glared flatly, before the girl gave a huff, and stood up, apparently done with her task. Xiao gave Yorihi one last glare, apparently meant to kowtow others into doing what she told them if what Oku said meant anything, “Now don’t do anything stupid, I only have so many supplies and you’ll be getting harder training after lunch since you’re _special_ ,” she crossed her arms over her sleeveless dusky-pink kimono-esque top, “I don’t want to have to deal with you twice in one day for stupid stunts, understand?!”

Yorihi could only blink behind her bandana… never really having anyone address her like that, not to mention from someone near her own age.

“Tch, whatever,” the dusky-pinkette tossed her hand over her shoulder, turning heel and walking away.

A hand grabbed her around the shoulder and tugged her up to her feet, “Don’t worry about her,” it was the blonde boy with the stupid hat, apparently his creature had returned from whence it came and was staring at her over his shoulder with beady black eyes as he dragged her to her feet, “She’s actually quite nice once you get to know her…”

“DAMNIT DENBOU!! WHATEVER HAPPENED TO **_NOT_** HURTING YOURSELF FOR JUST **_ONE_** DAY!!” came the violent scream from across the plateau as both Yorihi and Oku turned enough to see Xiao chasing after the large boy.

Oku was scratching the back of his head, sounding embarrassed, “Well, they say someone only worries so much because they care so much, at least…”

Yorihi could only raise a brow, before turning to the boy’s hand that was still holding her shoulder.

“Oh,” he released it, “Sorry, hope I didn’t hurt you any,” he chuckled at the small girl’s raised brows, “Well, I’ll be off, still have class after all…” he waved back on reflex as he took several steps forward, then seemed to realize the error of his gesture, chuckle nervously and turn back to her, “Bye!” and ran off after the girl in dusky-pink as she was rather successfully wrestling the larger boy, Denbou, to the ground… apparently trying to ‘help’ him…

Yorihi could only cock eyebrows and tilt her head… that was all very, very strange…

“Getting along with others I see,” the girl’s head turned to the side, finding the imposing form of Kuri-sensei as he seemed to just be standing back, watching as his students attempted whatever their assignment was… most of them on the ground focusing on a piece of paper while Xiao bounced around between those that apparently hurt themselves somehow, Oku trailing after her. Kuri’s thin eyes seemed to watch everything at once and Yorihi felt very small at the moment.

Her hands twitched, feeling the bandages and the lingering pain, but a glance and she could see the blood seeping through, knowing later she’d fix them up herself but still somewhat grateful for the assistance.

She said the first thing that came to mind, “Why did you do that?”

Kuri didn’t seemed fazed at all by the inquiry, simply sticking to his stalwart watch of his students, “To set an example,” with the barest movement he tilted his thin eyes down to her, examining her, “to teach you humility,” his gaze returned to the students, “And to show them you are not the same as them…”

Without thinking Yorihi raised hand and rubbed her wrist along her mouth, knowing she had bit her lip while being tossed and could taste blood, and for all she knew there was more damage, “I didn’t lie…”

“You didn’t tell the truth either,” he said crisply while she pouted, “It seems Kemui-sensei has indeed taught you well about the nuances of information…”

Yorihi lowered her arm, pout becoming a frown, “Kemui-sama taught me more than that…” – _Tougemichi too…_ -

The large chubby man gave the barest of nods, acknowledging her point or accepting something else was anyone’s guess, “Though there are things that cannot be taught…”

The small girl’s frown pulled down further, not wanting to voice the obvious question.

The teacher started walking forward, “Sit and think on why you are here, we will continue your training later…”

“W-wait!” Yorihi rummaged around her blue kimono top, new clothing Mei-chan and her Grandmother had insisted on even if she had cared very little about her appearance on her first day of academy, at least they’d gotten her arm and leg-guards. Kuri had paused long enough to look back at her, just as she managed to pull out the two beat-rods she’d used during her fight with Omoi and Karui. She’d held on to them for the entire month between then and now, never getting a chance to give them back, “I wanted to return-”

“Keep them,” the man’s voice was crisp, cutting the girl off as he turned back to continue on his way to instruct his students, “They served me well, you can learn much from them.”

After a few steps he was off instructing another student, and Yorihi was left at the edge by herself, holding the old and worn beat-rods. Her hand felt heavy, wrapped in tight bandages, unable to fully feel along the scars and lines of the rods as she glanced down at them through her bandana. – _What am I supposed to do with them now?_ -

After a moment of nothing but listening to the grunting, groaning and overall failure of any of the other students to show sufficient elemental affinities or broken ninjutsu, the blind girl sat down, rods in hand and did what her sensei had instructed her. She sat and meditated on her reason for being _here_ and the rods.

Kitearu Kuri gave her a lot to think about…

\-----

“Oooh,” a voice squealed delightfully as Yorihi stepped into the nearly-empty classroom, back in the academy building. It was the afternoon, her personal crash course classes separate from the ‘normal’ ones of the final year students. In the center of the room was her final sensei for the day, a short woman, honestly not much taller than her, with half-moon spectacles barely hiding large dark green eyes and hair she thought was black until the closer she got the better she could see a sheen to it, making it red. The oddly small, pale teacher was grinning widely at the girl, it was cute but something about it set the hair on the back of her neck standing up, and Bachiko wasn’t liking it one bit as he sat in his spot in the rafters, “Seems I get the first crack at you all alone, fun for me~”

Yorihi couldn’t help the involuntary swallow as she stood before the short woman, “G-good afternoon, Moe-sensei,” she nodded her head, unsure what to do in this environment.

A dark red brow quirked, “is that the best greeting you can offer?”

Blue-black brows furrowed in response, “I’m sorry?”

“Tch,” the short woman shook her head, walking closer to Yorihi, tsking the whole way, “Now, now, don’t go apologizing if you don’t mean it…”

Blue-black brows furrowed more as she the woman started circling her, “I meant in that I did not understand…” what was this woman doing? Her other sensei had seemed to find it appropriate to point Yorihi out in the crowd of normal students, try including her or using her as an example, of what she wasn’t quite sure but already this day had been entirely too taxing. – _I’d rather be training with Tougemichi hunting leeches in pitch black darkness…_ \- at least that she understood, even if not immediately she’d figured it out eventually. This ‘academy’ training was beyond confusing.

There was suddenly a sharp snap as something hit the girl in the upper arm.

“Now, now, we can’t have your mind wondering like that…” Moe clipped, pacing around the girl, giving Yorihi the second to notice the switch in her hand.

“What…?” another snap, this time on her other shoulder, “Ow!”

“Tch, honestly,” the short woman made another circuit, “Can’t keep your thoughts together can you…”

Yorihi growled, fingers flexing in anger at the woman. What the heck did she think she was do-

**_ SNAP!! _ **

“Argh!!” Yorihi jumped away, brows furrowed low in anger, “What are you doing Moe-sensei?!”

The short, so red it seemed black haired woman stood where Yorihi had previously stood, glaring flatly over her half-moon spectacles, switch in one hand and the other cocked on her hip, unimpressed, “Honestly, this is what they send me?” a dramatic sigh that would have been cute if the woman weren’t so threatening, “You haven’t even noticed have you?”

Yorihi rubbed her hands where she’d been hit, brows furrowed angrily as she couldn’t help but ask, “Noticed what?”

Those dark green eyes narrowed more, “That you’re in a genjutsu,” suddenly the woman snapped her fingers and the world around them dissolved.

Yorihi woke with a gasp, sitting cross legged on the floor of the room she’d thought she’d been in previously… then she felt the rush of pain as her mind re-registered her cut up hands, “ARGH!!” the girl gripped her hands tightly to each other, futilely trying to suppress the pain while only really causing more…

- _Wait_ \- she stopped holding her hands so tight, bringing them out in front of her and flexing them, causing more pain from the cuts, “The pain…” it had been gone before…

This time a very _real_ switch came down on the back of her head, aggravating the bump she’d gotten earlier from Xiao’s bedside manner.

“OW!!” the young girl bit her lip, trying futilely to rub the wound with her wrists and not aggravating her injuries more.

A short woman in a familiar ranger-shirt and jounin vest walked around her and stood before her, those dark green eyes staring at her lazily, “You are going to be a lot of work little princess,” instead of cracking the switch on some body part of Yorihi’s again she simply reached it out, poking the pale girl directly on the forehead, “The genjutsu I had you in was basic, but even then I had you spilling your thoughts to me,” the switch trailed lower, touching the edge of Yorihi’s bandana, “Honestly, if I wanted, I could have ripped this off, or had you do it yourself, revealing your terrible secret…”

That had Yorihi stiffening, fear in her hidden eyes as she knew her Father and Teacher wouldn’t want anyone, even these new sensei, seeing her eyes… and after seeing them herself, and how they’d changed… she immediately shook her head, swatting the switch away.

Moe smirked sinisterly, “Touched a nerve have I? HA!” she moved the switch down, using it to lean on as she smirked at the little girl, “Honestly, how could that wolf-woman have raised you so foolishly and left you so easy to read?” a pale hand reach out and flicked Yorihi on the head, causing her to wince while Moe just kept looking evilly, “You are no challenge at all, Taichou would be upset that I’m stuck with such a pathetic pupil…”

- _Taichou?_ \- that caught Yorihi’s attention, that was the same thing a lot of the Commanders had called her Grandmother, “Reki-baba?”

“Baba?” there was a high-pitched questioning tone as the woman asked, “That woman has grandkids? HA!” the short woman tapped the switch against the floor, it reminded Yorihi of Tougemichi’s staff somewhat, “I doubt it, but…” dark green eyes looked the small ink-blue haired girl again, “considering how _painfully_ honest you are… hmm, maybe…”

Yorihi bit her tongue, realizing she must have said something foolish. – _I don’t like this woman very much…_ \- of the three sensei she’d met today, Moe was definitely was at the bottom of her list…

A harsh laugh broke through the silence, “Oh man,” Yorihi could feel the deceit in that laugh, as the short woman wiped away fake tears, “Oh you are just _too easy!!_ ”

Before Yorihi could so much as respond the end of the switch was tapping her forehead again…

… and she was opening the door to the classroom, seeing her new sensei for the first time.

Hakumei Moe was the first person to show her genjutsu…

\-----

Kurogami- Black god

Ruri - Lapis Lazuli

Kitearu- to forge, drill, temper, train

Kuri – Monastery Kitchen, Priest’s Quarters, Chestnut

Hakumei – Twilight (Haku- white, Mei- daughter [Chinese])

Moe **–** Otaku slang: “Something Blooms inside your Heart”, spontaneous desire to protect/hold/help (Derived from Shitamoe- to sprout, grow, bloom… alt: Moeru- to burn)

Denbou – Teaching Bhuddism, rough person, bullying

‘Saji’- Sa-ji – Serge

‘Fero’ – feromon - Pheromone


	5. Bullish Fist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A New Rival appears!

“Again!” a sharp voice called out over the training field. Currently the students were in pairs practicing taijutsu moves according to their skill and aptitude. The tall blonde woman with the fierce tattoos marched from one sparring circle to the next, keeping a critical eye on the students’ performances. Currently her sharp shadowed eyes were focused on the smallest student she had currently, spending her lesson with the class of other genin-hopefuls. Her opponent was a large boy that had been held back, not for his lack of taijutsu skills but his rash behavior and ‘slow to learn’ nature. The boy was a gruff ox, black haired and stubborn, smashing anything in his way with little to no finesse. In some _other_ villages this may have been seen as an excuse to disbar the boy from ever becoming a ninja, since _obviously_ he was too willful to _learn_ proper discipline…

Luckily, he was born in Kumo, where every single _Master_ of the martial arts was well versed in the often dismissed skill called ‘brawling’. Fighting was fighting when you got down to it, people that wanted to stress ‘finesse’ could take their opinions to another village, Ruri didn’t have time for such nonsense if it wasn’t part of a students’ nature to fight as such. Genko was a natural fighter, his instincts told him when and where to go, how to block with his large body, when to roll to the side for a counter, and wasn’t above grappling to get what he needed. He was a scrappy brawler through and through, there was nothing ‘civilized’ about the way he fought, in years to come, if the boy ever stopped being so stubbornly stupid, Ruri knew he’d be a juggernaut on the battlefield…

He was one of her prize taijutsu students; even if he bombed the other two core subjects…

… and currently he was being flipped over the shoulder of a girl half his size.

“ _HAAAH!!_ ” Yorihi shouted as she threw Genko out of the sparing circle for the second time, rolling her shoulder and hip as Ruri had shown her after grabbing the larger boy’s mid-arm from a punch he’d over extended with. Her much smaller stature made her harder to hit, and thanks to training with Bachiko’s ‘big’ form, she wasn’t bothered in the slightest to fight someone _bigger_ than her, in fact it almost felt natural.

The boy’s larger body buckled in the air halfway to being thrown, and Yorihi actually had to let go and jump _away_ from him before being smushed… one too many times of being crushed by a large bakeneko gave her a heightened sense of learning when to simply ‘move’ out of the way. Genko crashed, quite loudly, and badly, on his overextended shoulder. The black haired boy gave a groan and as the dust cleared, Xiao was once again moving to apply medical aid. In the weeks since the first day where Yorihi had banged up her hands and had the _pleasure_ of meeting the girl face to face, she’d learned to watch her. The red eyed girl was always just exactly where she needed to be, just exactly when someone got hurt, and as the class ‘medical representative’ it was her duty to patch them up…

“Seriously Genko, you just got tossed by a little girl…” a flat voice snipped as she poked the large boy, letting his body fall the extra bit to sprawl out on the field so she could tend to his dislocated shoulder…

… and provide disapproving commentary, usually about how ‘idiotic’ the other students were for getting injured. Occasionally Yorihi wondered if this bedside manner would actually _improve_ once they were out of the Academy…

There was a loud **_pop!_** As the dusky-pinkette yanked the large boy’s arm to set it back in place, to his credit all Genko did was growl.

… many of the students, Yorihi included, highly doubted this.

“Hmm,” there was that disapproving hum from the tall blonde woman that was teaching them, “That was sloppy,” those tiny black eyes looked on the large boy coldly, several observing students shuttered visibly.

There was a wince on the boy’s face as Xiao continued to poke around his shoulder, testing to see if there was any serious damage, “She’s quick Sensei…” it was a pitiful excuse, and everyone knew it.

The look on Ruri’s face said it all, there was no room for ‘excuses’, “So what,” a bare foot stepped hard in front of the boy, giving the class medic the signal to vacate the vicinity as the woman’s cold onyx eyes glared down at the boy, “you over extended a punch, she grabbed for a flip, you should have grappled her to the ground, using your superior size to trap her,” the tattoos really made Ruri’s dark face quite menacing, Genko felt he was looking into the disapproving face of a goddess of war and violence, “If the opponent is _too quick_ , then stop them any chance you get!”

The boy visibly flinched, curling into a ball, almost expecting to be kicked. When nothing came he dared to look up from under his arms, the tall blonde woman had turned, walking away as if he was of no concern. A bubbling rage filled him, something his mother and other teachers had constantly told him would someday get him into severe trouble, though _normally_ Ruri-sensei was the one that praised such a gift and helped him hone it to help him fight. Right now, that sensei was mad at him, worse yet, probably disappointed in him, he growled before saying the last thing without really thinking, “How are we supposed to fight a monster like her?!”

The entire training area was suddenly dead silent.

Ruri stood stock still, turning only just enough to look at the pouty boy on the ground nursing his arm.

He was frowning, and angry, and a mix of several other _childish_ emotions as he looked directly at the woman he trusted, just like the other students, “How are we supposed to fight her, sensei, when she’s leagues above us, huh?” anger was in the boy’s voice, his pride hurt and lashing out without thinking, “You said it yourself, the first day she got here!” several students jumped when he suddenly pointed at the small girl that was his opponent, “Why should we just get our asses handed to us by some girl no one knows about, huh? She doesn’t even talk to any of us like we exist!! Just always moving from one class to the next, no emotions, no words other than directly to you or the other sensei!!” hate filled the boy’s eyes as he looked directly at the blind girl that so easily trampled all of them, “Why are you even here!”

**_SLAP!!_ **

The resounding smack across the face surprised everyone, more so because it _wasn’t_ from the girl they’d all been staring at but their stoic sensei as she’d disappeared one second to sending her hand across the sore loser’s face the next. Muscular tattooed arms grabbed the boy around the collar and lifted him into the air with ease, holding him a good foot or two off the ground as their sensei just glared at him with that godlike fury.

Genko tried to gasp but only managed to slightly choke himself, his large hands grasping at the woman’s stripped arm trying to do _anything_ that would make it stop.

“Are you saying I’m unfair?” surprisingly her voice was soft, it sent shivers down many of the students’ spines, “Are you saying I should have her train somewhere else? Against someone else?”

A choked reply stuck in the boy’s throat was all the response she got.

Small black eyes narrowed before the woman brought the boy lower, face-to-face, “Grow up,” the guttural growl in the woman’s voice terrified all the students as she carelessly tossed the boy to the ground hard, “You face an opponent and you either beat them or die, the world doesn’t care if they match your skill level or utterly trump you,” she turned without care, leaving the boy to hack on the ground, “You want to complain about getting a shoddy match, blame your own weakness and ignorance,” the woman’s eyes narrowed as she glanced back, seeing four other students try to pick the boy back up, Xiao interestingly enough passively standing off to the side just watching, “Once you accept you’re an idiot and weak, do something about it, but never think the world is going to ‘thank you’ by making everyone else stupider and weaker for your efforts,” the tattooed woman turned back to the opposite edge, letting the other students drag the boy away as she walked closer to the student in question, her small black eyes zeroing in on the blind girl as she finished her words, “There is always someone stronger…”

Yorihi gulped, not so much from the look the tall woman was giving her but the tone of her voice, it sent a shiver down her spine she had to consciously will herself to ignore.

“Sensei!” a voice called from the center of the sparing ground.

Ruri passively turned back to see the class medic standing there, blood red eyes hard on the older woman. A blonde brow rose as her only response.

The dusty-pinkette took a steadying breathe through her nose, “I’ll fight her.”

That blonde brow rose higher as Ruri turned to face the girl fully, like many of the other students Xiao was at least a year older than Yorihi, but unlike Genko the girl hadn’t been held back, and several of the other, lower, sensei had been wondering why she hadn’t taken the graduating test yet. Ruri, like the other two members of the ‘Triad’, Kumo’s top teachers, knew why the girl hadn’t taken that extra step forward yet. Like most genin of her type, they over thought, questioned, and were overly cautious, Moe loved the girl. Ruri didn’t have any real issue with Xiao, the girl had adequate taijutsu skills and above average tool skills, probably from her constant fiddling with medical memorabilia.

No, what had Ruri confused, and therefore interested, was that Xiao was standing up, now, for Yorihi. This class wasn’t her specialty, and it was obvious in a taijutsu-only fight the younger girl would win… so why? The blonde brow remained up as the older woman voiced this concern, “Why?”

The dark girl’s lips thinned, trying not to frown obviously, “Her training partner just quit,” those red eyes vaguely traveled to the blind girl standing behind their teacher, “she needs a substitute.”

A blonde brow rose higher as the woman turned more to the older girl, holding her hand comfortably behind her back, examining the girl, “is that the only reason?”

An overt shrug as Xiao seemed to obviously pout, “I’m not paired with anyone, I’m always the spare so I can fix anyone up,” dusky pink brows lowered as she eyed their sensei, “She needs to spar for the rest of class, I’m the sub…”

For a moment Ruri actually looked amused.

Before the sensei or Yorihi could even comment there was actually a large outcry, “NO XIAO-CHAN!!”

More surprising, it was from more than one student, several of them had stopped their training to defiantly stand between the class medic and their teacher, each voicing their opinions that she shouldn’t do it, primarily consisting of: “NO SHE’LL MASSACRE YOU!!” “IF YOU GET HURT… WHO WILL HEAL US!!” “NOT YOU, ANYONE BUT YOU!!”

Both Yorihi and Ruri just stared at scene passively, well Ruri did, Yorihi somewhat confusedly glared through her bandana and may or may not have twitched a hand to gripping one of her blades.

“ARAGH!! SHUT UP!!” the ‘crowd’ of students suddenly trembled under the fury of blood red eyes, “I don’t want to hear any more out of _ANY_ of you!!” patented ‘Mom’-glare sent some of the older and bigger kids cowering, “Get back to training!! And if you get hurt… SUCK IT UP!! There _IS_ a nurse’s office,” maybe a bit of a groan, “I swear, you all let yourselves get hurt because you think I’ll always heal you…”

“But that’s because you will~” a smarmy male voice cut in from the sidelines of the arena, Oku waved when red eyes glared at him.

“Shut up, Oku!!” somehow a rock was thrown his way, he aptly dodged it.

“You heard her!!” Ruri’s voice bellowed over the squabble of students as the woman towered over them, “GET BACK TO TRAINING!!” with several ‘eeps!’ the gathered students scrambled back to their sparing circles. There was even a groan from where those four students had left Genko, but everyone ignored him. Ruri menacingly glared around the area, ignoring that Oku and his badger had taken a seat at the edge, the boy was sweating and panting obviously despite his stupid smile meaning unlike the others he’d actually been training. A cursory glance told Ruri his sparring partner was passed out in the middle of their lone arena at the end of the rocky field. Small black eyes turned back to the dusky-pinkette, “Are you ready?”

The girl took a modified boxing stance, fists up under her chin as she hopped from one foot to the other, “As much as I will be…”

The blonde gave a curt nod before turning to the quiet blind girl that had followed her to the center of the arena, “Yorihi, are you ready?”

“Mm,” the smaller girl gave a curt nod, taking a step forward as their sensei stepped back between them. Yorihi looked the older girl over, her stance was odd, something she’d never ‘seen’, not even in martial texts her Teacher and Uncle gave her to look through for a ‘style’ she might like. The bouncing was starting to irritate her, she settled into her own stance, which really wasn’t more than just standing straight, allowing her to move as necessary to any opponents’ actions. Yorihi would never really call it a ‘stance’, so much as a habit, since Bachiko and Tougemichi never really gave her any time to ‘take a stance’ before setting about attacking her.

Ruri looked from one girl, bouncing, to the younger one just standing there, if she weren’t a Master of Taijutsu chances are she wouldn’t have thought they were about to get into a serious match. A smirk may or may not have lifted on the older woman’s lips as she raised her hand between them, “Begin!”

… Despite the tense build up, neither opponent moved for a good long while after the older woman left the arena.

A blue-black brow curled over a certain bandana, “Why aren’t you moving?”

Xiao continued to bounce in place, a snide smirk lighting her lips, “I _am_ moving…”

A frown pulled on Yorihi’s face, “Not that…” the girl tensed, waiting any moment for the older genin-wannabe to come at her, frustrated when she didn’t, “Why aren’t you attacking?”

“Why aren’t you?” there was definitely a smirk on Xiao’s dark features.

Yorihi forced her hands to not ball into fists, “Normally people attack me immediately,” – _Not giving me a chance to fight back…_ \- she mentally added, as she felt a certain cat snicker from wherever he was spying on them.

The red-eyed girl’s smirk was getting annoying, “I’ve noticed,” still bouncing as she shifted slightly to one side, “You always get paired with the most _aggressive_ fighters, so you’re always on the defensive,” something about the girl’s smirk became genuine, “so you’re good in a tight spot, reacting, not really attacking…”

Blue-black brows furrowed deeply as the blind girl actually lowered her tense stance, “So you’re _not_ going to attack me?”

That damn smirk as the girl’s red eyes lit up, “Course not,” there was a snarky chuckle to her voice, “I’m a medic, we don’t ‘attack’,” one hand reached out from under the girl’s chin, holding out with all fingers flat and made a ‘come on’ gesture.

Yorihi just looked confused, she wasn’t used to someone _letting_ her attack them.

At the blind girl’s continued confused look, Xiao stopped her bouncing and openly sighed, “C’mon, we don’t have all day,” her red eyes became sharp as she saw the girl tense again and she kicked back into the air, bouncing, “Keep standing there and you’ll lose by default.”

_That_ brought a deep frown to the young girl’s face, her hands balling white, “Why would I automatically lose?”

The older girl had that half-chuckle again in her voice, “Because the point here is for you to attack _me_ , not what you’re used to…”

Yorihi frowned, “Since when?”

Red eyes rolled, “Because like I said,” she started to move to the side, still bouncing annoyingly, “I’m a medic, we don’t ‘attack’,” in an instant Xiao narrowly dodged the smaller girl’s kick, she certainly was fast. A smirk rose on the older girl’s face as she crouched in a roll as the smaller girl changed direction after ‘missing’, aiming to take her head. The dusky-pinkette simply moved out under and away, never once stopping her little bouncing steps, “We DODGE!!”

Yorihi frowned, landing in a crouch, but immediately launching after the older girl, this time with a fist which was summarily leaned out of the way of… a growl as the smaller girl got shouldered out of the way and the ‘medic’ she slipped away again. Yorihi’s brows furrowed deeply, her hands grasping the ground where she’d been thrown, or really _slipped_ off of. The older girl’s constant bouncing was annoying as hell, it was actually bugging her sense of touch and hearing. Sure, she _always_ knew where the girl was, but with the constant motion she couldn’t grasp her exact position, it was always moving, fluctuating with the rhythm of her steps, and once Yorihi got a gauge on it, she’d switch it up.

The blind girl frowned, following the older girl through her fingertips on the ground, not wanting to have to _rely_ on her sight.

“C’mon,” that damn smirking bouncing, “Don’t tell me you’re messed up already,” Xiao cocked her head in a way that would probably be considered insulting if Yorihi could ‘see’ it, “I figured you use sound and feeling to find your opponents primarily, you’re really good at it, I’ll give you that,” the smirk was genuine, “But this style calls for constant movement, so not only is it great for me,” she rolled out of the way as the smaller girl attacked again, “… but I figured you’d have a hard time adjusting to it.”

Yorihi rolled, picking herself up off the ground and sliding her hand on the ground again, getting her ‘touch’ bearings. She could _see_ the older girl plain as day thanks to her eyes but it did very little to help her since she couldn’t reveal that, and her mind kept focusing on what her other, heightened senses were telling her. The older girl was seemingly ‘floating’ with each bounce, and something about the area was making the hairs on her skin stand up straight. It was a familiar feeling, but… blue-black brows furrowed, “You’re using chakra…”

Xiao smirked, shifting to her other side, “And?”

The younger girl pouted, “This is supposed to be taijutsu only, no chakra.”

Red eyes flatly stared at the smaller girl, “I don’t want to hear that from you,” at Yorihi’s confused look, a dusky-pink brow rose, “You’ve been using chakra in all of your matches,” she shook her head, “It’s no wonder you beat the others so easily…”

Blue-black brows furrowed over the dark blue bandana, “No I wasn’t…?”

A pink brow rose, before that smirk came back, “Yea, you were,” she waved towards the girl, more out of normal gesture habit then really thinking whether or not the girl could see it, “I may not be a sensor-type, but I got more chakra control then you, and a lot more experience sensing out others using it,” she ruffled her shoulders, gesturing to around them, hoping the girl could ‘feel’ the gesture, “What I’m using is a chakra field, it lets me track every movement an opponent makes within a few feet of me,” her red eyes bore into the small girl, “I’ve felt your chakra brimming in your legs, its why you move so fast,” a light chuckle as something seemed to register to Xiao, “Heh, you probably don’t even realize you’re doing it, do you?”

A bit of color came to the younger girl’s face as she shook her head in the negative.

This time Xiao really did laugh, “Wow,” she shook her head, “Just wow, I’ve heard of people doing stuff ass-backwards… but you…” a sympathetic look came to the girl’s dark face, “You definitely seem to take it to a whole new level.” The older wannabe-genin just smirked at the way the smaller girl’s brows furrowed, assuming it was as close to an ‘indignant glare’ as she’d get with a blind girl, “Now c’mon, we don’t have a lot of time left…”

Yorihi seemed to tense for a moment before something else came to mind, “Xiao…-chan?” she added the honorific as an afterthought, most all the other students called the older girl that, but then again they’d all known her for probably years. Yorihi wasn’t sure if the girl would mind, but at the encouraging look the older wannabe-genin gave, as if she hadn’t even noticed, the dark haired girl continued, “Could you… could you teach me that chakra field?”

A dusky-pink brow rose, “Hmm,” she shifted her stance again, “Normally I’d tell you to go screw yourself for suggesting such,” at the absolutely blasé fair way the girl said that Yorihi nearly met face to ground, “But!” a smirk rose on the girl’s darker skinned face, “Since you seem like you’d actually take it seriously, and it could actually benefit you considering…” her voice dropped off, no one really mentioned the strange younger girl was blind, not knowing if it was ‘inappropriate’ or not, “Sure… my brother might whine since it’s a ‘family’ thing, but first you gotta beat me…” her grin spread cockily, “ _IF_ you can beat me~”

“Mm,” Yorihi gave a firm nod. She had a theory on how the girl’s technique worked, as her ‘sphere of chakra’ she used to make in the caves probably acted similar, but with Xiao’s technique she could probably help get her chakra more under control… and it’d be a great way to hide her sight. – _Kemui-sama would probably be proud…_ \- a certain cat was rolling his eyes in the back of her head and she was tempted to try looking for him. – _Ugh… ignore him, I have a technique to win!_ \- that was definitely something her Father or Uncle would say, not that anyone was around to comment on such.

Yorihi crouched on the ground, setting her hand flat on the ground as she followed the girl bounce around. She tried to ignore the smirk on Xiao’s face. Once her senses were trained on the girl, even sight as annoying as it was, she was off. Attacking had always felt ‘off’ to Yorihi, and she’d only become accustomed to it as a reaction when fighting the creatures in the caves, since it was often her task to ‘hunt’ and kill them, then of course Bachiko got involved and had to make things difficult. A part of Yorihi’s mind wondered what it’d be like to fight him _while_ trying to attack Xiao… it’d probably get really complicated.

Yorihi’s fist went flying over Xiao’s shoulder as the girl rolled out of the way, with her head lower due to the ‘roll’ she barely had enough time to pull back and shift to the side as the smaller girl’s knee came in for a follow up. – _Well, she’d learning…_ \- the dusky pink haired girl had to admit it usually took longer before someone started getting near her with combos. She slid out of the way, letting the smaller girl topple from her misses… only she didn’t, and where Xiao had thought to dodge the knee that had been brought up to try and knee her in the face kicked back, missing of course, but planting firmly as the girl punched with her other hand, giving Xiao the smallest margin to flatten herself…

Then she realized why the blind girl had planted her foot, it not only gave her the leverage to punch, but pick up her other leg for a crossed kick… this was some complicated combo!

Without thinking, Xiao did the first thing she knew would send the girl flying… she jabbed her with a straight right to the face, and thanks to her longer reach and ‘surprise’ got there before the girl’s foot connected. It had enough force to knock the girl off her one foot as her hand reflexively went to hold her face.

Xiao ducked back, quickly bringing her arm back as she slid into a sterner stance, no longer bouncing but watching the girl with unblinking red eyes. She’d gotten close, _real_ close. – _And in our first match too…_ \- the older girl didn’t know whether to praise the girl or curse her training, either way, she determined to bug her brother after class for more lessons.

“Ugh!” Yorihi was rubbing her nose, it hurt but didn’t feel broken, that kind of hit was meant to stun and sadly it had worked as once the annoyance was pushed down she could feel the older girl had gotten out of her reach. There was a pout on her lips as she turned to the older girl with furrowed brows, still rubbing her nose, “Thought you didn’t ‘attack’?”

Red eyes blinked, then she smirked, “We don’t, normally, though not that we _can’t_ when needed.”

Yorihi just scowled at the smirking girl.

A bell rang off in the distance.

“ALRIGHT!! PACK UP!!” and Ruri’s voice could be heard from the other side of rocky clearing.

The blind girl groaned, while the dusky-pinkette laughed, “Well, seems we’re saved by the bell…”

White eyes rolled, not that anyone could see.

“C’mon,” Xiao called over, finally dropping her stance, “Let’s get you looked at…”

There was an obvious pout on Yorihi’s face but she stepped over to the older girl anyway, only commenting as she reached out to touch the sides of her nose, “Thought we were… uh… supposed to ‘suck it up’?”

Red eyes were critically looking over the girl’s mostly covered face. Xiao made no motion to even touch the blue bandana around the girl’s eyes, honestly surprising Yorihi, as most people, _especially_ Moe-sensei, seemed to be fascinated with it and wanting to remove it. Dark thumbs pressed on the sides of Yorihi’s nose, eliciting a small wince mostly hidden by the bandana, but the red eyed girl seemed satisfied, “Well, luckily you’ll live,” she removed her hands and took a step back, looking the area over with a critical eye, “Could’a swore I might have broken something,” unconsciously she shook out her fist, “Hitting you is like hitting a stone wall…”

Yorihi snorted, ignoring the slight twinge, “Ever hit a stone wall with your face?”

Pink brows lowered, confused, “No?”

Yorihi just faced her general direction, “It hurts, a lot,” without meaning to; she rubbed along the bridge of her nose, remembering stumbling around in the dark of the caves. Her face had become intimately familiar with several stone pillars, walls, overhangs, etc. during her first year…

Xiao just blinked, then laughed as she seemed to finally realize what the girl was saying, “Oh… right… you’re... uh… heh?” absently she looked embarrassed, as if mentioning something she shouldn’t have.

“Blind, yes,” Yorihi said flatly, ignoring the truth, though at the time she had been well and truly blind.

The older girl seemed to smile earnestly, opening her mouth as if to say something more…

“XIAO-CHAN!!” before getting heavily glomped by a certain boy with a stupid hat and a badger holding on furiously to his back.

“Ack!” the two fell unceremoniously to the ground.

Yorihi tried not to wince, but did anyway, honestly surprised the girl that could dodge her so effortlessly just got steam-rolled by that silly boy.

There was a punch, a masculine whine, and something that may or may not have been a “Shut up, Oku!!” before the two quickly stood up, dusted themselves off, and appeared like the last five minutes didn’t happen… even if Xiao looked utterly pissed and Oku was just grinning innocently.

“Heh heh,” Oku was scratching embarrassedly under his stupid hat, while Xiao was pointedly looking away from him and probably grumbling under her breathe. The dark blonde boy turned to Yorihi, holding up a bag, “I picked up you and hers stuff, hope you don’t mind!”

All Yorihi could do was blink, not having expected such an action from anyone.

The boy continued to grin, placing his hands on both girl’s backs and directing them towards the way back to the Academy building, like the rest of their class, “C’mon, we’ll be late!”

Yorihi could almost _feel_ Xiao rolling her eyes and couldn’t help the _slight_ smirk rising on her own lips…

\-----

Genjutsu was, by far, Yorihi’s worst and most hated class…

Though, she would admit, at least to herself, she much preferred the class when it was with the ‘normal’ class, instead of her one-on-one sessions with Moe-sensei. The woman was crazy… and that was putting it mildly. Most of her private sessions consisted of being put in a genjutsu, taking apparently _too long_ to realize it, being literally smacked out of it, told what she did wrong then back into the genjutsu, rinse repeat. She was still having a hard enough time just understanding what ‘genjutsu’ was, let alone figuring out what parts she was supposed to be registering or not… half the reason she took so long ‘spotting’ it was she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be ‘seeing’ anything or not, trying to pretend to be blind while someone is screwing with your senses was difficult indeed…

Thankfully, on ‘normal’ class days, it was much easier…

“Alright brats!” that scary switch came down on the desk Moe daintily sat upon, creepily-cute smile on her face, “We’ll be demonstrating some _basic_ genjutsu and go over a few concepts,” her dark green eyes opened, showing a hardened steel as she looked over the group, “since _apparently_ most of you still suck balls at even the most _basic_ of **_basic_** skills… Ie: the Bushin!!”  without even a seal a row of copies of the woman appeared lining the walls, each in a different pose and looking at a different student menacingly.

Yorihi could only quirk a blue-black brow. How was she supposed to react to this? She couldn’t ‘see’ them, they didn’t have weight, and there was barely a sound… well, unlike the times Moe-sensei did it with just her, but still…

Someone elbowed her shoulder, without looking she knew it was Oku, “You probably don’t know this, but Moe-sensei just summoned up a whole swarm of herself!” he was whispering excitedly. Ever since the second day of her ‘with class’ genjutsu lessons Oku had taken it upon himself to sit up next to her and give her a play by play on what madness their small teacher was playing at this class.

Some part of the ‘blind’ girl supposed she should thank the boy, he didn’t have to go out of his way to ‘help’ her like this, but it was appreciated, “I felt a shift in her chakra…”

One of his dark blonde brows rose, “Wow, really?” he was still speaking in that hushed whisper, scratching his chin, “I couldn’t even tell when she did it…”

To be fair, Yorihi was surprised herself that she’d noticed anything. – _Maybe those personal lessons aren’t a total waste after all?_ \- she had been getting more used to the woman’s chakra, now knowing when she shifted it meant something happened… it was the interpreting that was still bugging the hell out of her.

“Hey Princess!!” Moe’s not-so-sweet voice called from down at the desk, sickeningly sweet grin still on her face, “Come down here, I want to see if you can pull this off…”

Yorihi inwardly groaned… Bushin, Henge, hell any ‘technique’ that require some ‘sight’ of something was impossible for her to do. She intentionally botched Henge in Kuri-sensei’s class, because she _couldn’t **see**_ ,  though he seemed to accept that excuse, going about different ways in their one-on-one sessions to get her to ‘understand’ how things felt and ‘looked’ without sight. She’d freely admit his surprisingly open-mindedness helped a lot… the only problem she seemed to have now was color. Yorihi knew she’d eventually have to deal with that, but for now… well, back to Moe-sensei.

“C’mon, let’s see what you got!” the midget’s smile was all too cheery as she hopped off the desk and walked around to the chair behind it.

With a doomed frown, Yorihi got up.

Something tugged her hand, she leaned towards it and saw of course that it was Oku, that silly-almost-apologetic grin of his on as he terribly whispered to her, “You can do it, Yorihi-chan!”

She had to bite her tongue not to groan, removing her hand and taking her measured steps to utter doom.

Moe was just grinning the whole way, “Alright class, I’m calling our _dear_ Princess down here for two reasons,” the short woman leaned over the desk, holding up two fingers, “One,” she lowered the middle digit, “She’s got at least three times the chakra any of you do,” there were a few gripes and protests but Moe halted them with but a look, pointing at one girl in particular, “Yes, even you, Kenchou,” the pale woman’s smirk turned decidedly more evil as the girl squirmed under the scrutiny, sinking low into her desk chair. Moe had a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin, eyes closed and everything, as Yorihi finally made the last step and stood still in front of the woman, gripping one sword just to comfort herself, “And two,” both middle and index finger held up on the pale woman’s hand, “Unlike the rest of you, she has a rather interesting… _condition_ …”

Several murmurs arose, along with one of Yorihi’s brows. – _What’s she talking about?_ -

The cat’s grin grew, “Now, Princess, please show us your Bushin.”

Yorihi frowned at the constant nickname, sure all the Sensei knew she was the Raikage’s daughter, and yes due to her apparent anti-social behavior she’d not really gotten around to actually stating it to the other students, her Teacher and Father would probably be proud, but it somewhat annoyed her the short woman with the red hair so dark it was nearly black seemed to like throwing such ‘obvious’ comments about like they were nothing. – _If any of them got curious and actually ‘asked’ what she meant…_ \- with great reluctance, and maybe a slight groan, Yorihi put both her hands together in a seal she’d been ‘shown’ and tried imagining herself standing next to herself…

It was surprisingly difficult to accomplish, at least for her, as while Yorihi _could_ see she had to effectively ignore that completely. True, that part wasn’t as hard, she thought of how it felt in the caves, to ‘sense’ herself, and tried to project that next to her with the aid of chakra. The next issue came with limiting her chakra, she’d been told time and again, by both Moe-sensei, the others, and even certain members of her family (Namely Bee and Yugito) that Bushin required the utmost _minimum_ of chakra, this was a technique based on ‘ **Control** ’ not ‘amount’ unlike various other techniques. With her time at the Academy and dealing with its convoluted teaching practices the ‘blind’ girl had come to at least one fact, ninjutsu required larger reserves, pump as much chakra as possible in the technique to make it bigger, genjutsu required the utmost **control** , put as _little_ as possible in it or it won’t work, period.

There was a moment of focus while she tried pushing back her wild chakra, Bachiko sitting up in the rafters seeming to try and ‘pull’ much of the excess from her as his means to try and help… then suddenly a **_poof!_** And ‘something’ was standing next to the girl.

It was a silhouette, in her form, completely black, but retaining a sense of weight, sound, even scent, and Yorihi was sure if she wanted she could reach out and touch it.

A frown formed on the girl’s lips, knowing she’d done it wrong… again.

The sudden added laughter of her classmates didn’t help one bit.

“You brats think this is funny?” a sharp voice cut in, the sudden silence deafening. Moe-sensei had her hand flat on the desk, all ‘cuteness’ erased from her features and the stern cold ANBU she used to be in place, “How many of you have the Bushin down perfectly?” all hands rose, “How many of you can make five?” only two hands dropped, “Make ten?” significantly more hands dropped, “Twenty?” about three hands remained, “Now, of you three, how many of you can make a _solid_ Bushin?” those hands went down flat, “That’s what I thought,” a sinister grin rose on the woman’s face, truly menacing as several students shuttered, “While all of you are laughing, Yorihi-chan here has actually done something I doubt any of you will _ever_ be able to do,” the woman’s smirk actually turned on the ‘blind’ girl, leaving her feeling very confused, “Princess, you’re actually about three steps away from one very difficult advanced ninjutsu…”

Yorihi could only raise a brow… was Moe-sensei… _praising_ her failure?

“Still though,” the cuteness was suddenly back, “You utterly suck at making regular Bushin!”

The ground shook as many a student fell from their seats…

“Anyway!” that creepy sing-song adorable voice was back on their terrifyingly cute teacher, “Class, I want you to tell me what you can about this… er, ‘Bushin’…” there may or may not have been something that sounded like a snort.

Covered white eyes were burning holes in the woman’s head…

Several hands went up.

“Ya know what,” Moe twirled around in her rolly chair, “I’m just going to say it,” she stopped, facing the silhouette, “It utterly lacks color…”

All hands dropped, followed by a few groans and maybe one or two ‘ooh!’ exclamations.

Dark green eyes rolled as the woman stood up, stepping around her desk to get a ‘better look’ of the defunct bushin, “Now, if I look closely, this thing actually has an _amazing_ amount of detail, seriously,” she flicked a strap that jingled, reached over and pulled the over kimono shirt down enough to see the undershirt Yorihi wears, and with an evil grin reached for the skirt…

“ _SENSEI!”_ several brows rose as not many students had heard the quiet girl yell before…

“Oh fine,” the short woman removed her hands from woman-handling the clone, “Not that they could _see_ anything, but I’m sure all the details are in the right place…”

If any of the students were actually paying attention they may have noticed a light pink running across the mysterious girl’s cheeks, but with the bandana covering most of her face, few could tell.

Moe, of course, could, and that evil cat grin of hers was back, “As I was saying…” the short woman turned to the class, “This,” she took a step back, waving a hand to gesture to the clone, “is how our dear Princess ‘sees’ the world,” she flicked something on the clone that jingled, “Impeccable physical detail; sound, scent, weight, and even touch, BUT!” she raised a hand, waving yet again to the whole thing, “absolutely no color…” her smirk grew as a slight snicker entered her voice, “Interesting isn’t it, learning just how _useless_ sight is!”

Several more students fell out of their chairs…

“Moe-sensei,” Yorihi’s voice was low but she was actually trying _very_ hard to growl at the small woman, she was actually ‘praising’ her for once… if extremely backhanded, and there was that one thing she’d mentioned earlier, “Is my blindness this ‘interesting’ condition you mentioned earlier?”

A red-nearly-black brow rose on the cute woman’s face as she turned to the girl, “Oh, right!” without a word of warning the short woman reached out and grasped Yorihi around the head, “Hold still, I’m going to send an image directly to your brain, I want you to recreate it as much as possible,” at the confused look on the girl’s mostly covered face, the psychopath just grinned, “Don’t worry, I’ll be giving _as much_ detail as I can with it too~, just focus on making a ‘bushin’ of it, kay!”

Yorihi just frowned, but calmed down, letting the crazy woman do as she pleased while she put her hands in the seal for ‘bushin’ and tried to clear her mind, waiting for this ‘image’. This was another one of those things about genjutsu Yorihi didn’t get, its mechanics confused and slightly scared her. Moe-sensei had said she was going to send an ‘image’ directly to her brain… how in the world did-

“ACK!” there was a sudden spike from the woman’s chakra and Yorihi felt like something had electrocuted her brain, but suddenly there was an ‘image’ in her mind, something so totally consuming she couldn’t move it or even think beyond it. Without even thinking she just made the ‘bushin’ of whatever her mind was registering…

When her senses came back to her, and were actually her own to command, she was utterly shocked to see a perfect copy of herself, standing in front of her… color and everything. A good portion of her mind that registered this could only think one thing – _Oh… this is not good…_ -

Most of the class just gasped, taking her continued silence as confusion or shock.

Moe, of course, was just grinning from ear to ear, “There, see, perfect!” at the continued ‘confused’ look from her students the former ANBU just sighed, crossing her arms, “Fine! I’ll explain it!” she reached over and turned Yorihi from staring blankly at assumedly ‘nothing’, toward the class, so they could get a side-by-side comparison of the ‘Bushin’, the ‘Original’ and the failed ‘Silhouette’, “This, class, is the essence of Genjutsu,” the woman smirked as they all still had pretty much dumbfounded looks, “How do we perceive the world around us? Hmm? Through our senses,” she waved to the silhouette, “ _This_ is a unique example of how a blind person perceives the world,” she jingled something on the silhouette again, “without sight, her senses and perception of the world focuses on everything else, to such fine detail most of you would never even consider for something such as weight, scent, hell I could probably lick this thing and it’d taste like her…”

The ‘Original’ promptly blushed at the odd suggestion, not sure how _that_ would work out…

Several students snorted, but stopped with a quick glare from their teacher.

“Now,” she moved on to the ‘true’ bushin, “This, is how everyone else sees the world,” her hand moved through this bushin as if it weren’t there, like a real bushin was supposed to, “All color with no substance, kinda makes us normal people seem shallow huh?” she raised a brow, expecting at least _one_ snort, but apparently her students were too kowtowed to even more, “feh, anyway-”

“Sensei?” one student raised a hand; it was a girl with light orangeish blonde hair and light skin. At the piqued brow Moe sent her the girl continued, “How did you make… her ‘see’?” the girl gave shy glances at Yorihi, who didn’t move a muscle, not understanding why the girl looked so afraid, “She’s blind, how do you teach someone ‘blind’ something like color?”

Surprisingly, Moe just grinned, obviously all too proud of herself, “ _That_ , my lovely students is the **_fun_** part!” the short woman made her way to Yorihi’s open side, causing the girl to stiffen as she clasped her around the shoulder, “Yorihi-chan here is only physiologically blind!” this caused the girl to cock her head and quirk a brow, confused, “Through our various sessions with advanced Genjutsu I came to the realization that while her ‘eyes’ can’t see, her mind still can, meaning high level visual genjutsu still has the potential to affect her, and in this case,” the short woman waved to the ‘perfect’ bushin, “grants the ability to imprint an image in her mind, giving her a ‘sense’ of color, so to speak…”

All Yorihi could do was blink behind her bandana. – _Moe-sensei just told everyone I’m not ‘blind’ but that I am… how did I mess this up so bad?!_ \- the girl was shivering all over, she had no idea the woman was capable of such machinations… working directly on her brain?! Who?! How?! What?!

A certain pair of red eyes narrowed on the short woman basking in her own genius, “Sensei!” Xiao stood up, frowning at the older woman who casually looked at the class medical rep, “How can you work directly on the brain so carelessly?!” her hands balled into fists on the desk in front of her, “Whether or not Yorihi can ‘see’ with her mind or a malfunction of her eyes is pointless, you could have done serious damage if-” suddenly Xiao was still, her red eyes glazed over and she seemed to just drop.

Luckily the student next to her caught the comatose girl before she hit the ground or something else causing potentially more damage.

“That, students,” the sinister feel of dread went up everyone’s spine, “Is the power of a _Master_ of genjutsu…” she idly patted Yorihi’s stiff shoulder before brusquely waltzing over to her desk.

 In another second a distinct gasp was heard and Xiao was sitting up with frantic eyes…

“You’re going to want to calm down, Medic-chan, else you could have a heart attack,” Moe said brusquely, staring at her nails as she sat up on the desk.

Red eyes stared at the small woman, obvious fear in them before Yorihi noticed they turned to her, then back to Oku who was standing up with a fierce look on his face.

All the ‘blind’ girl could do was stand there, uneasy about this entire situation…

Moe had apparently pulled a file out of somewhere and started fiddling with her nails, “Remember class, the _only_ ,” she stressed this word without even looking at any of them, “Genjutsu you should ever worry about is _Master_ level genjutsu,” idly she blew on her nails, flicking them out, “A true master doesn’t need to touch you, look at you, or even gesture in any way to ensnare you in a truly mental illusion,” finally the woman looked up at her students, smiling in that cute way that was utterly terrifying, “and as there are so few of us _true_ Masters out there, you’ll likely only ever have to worry about shoddy illusions such as the common bushin,” suddenly the woman’s eyes were open and looking surprisingly terrifying, “And I swear, if any of you _ever_ fall for that level of bullshit… well,” sickeningly sweet voice back as she looked directly at Xiao, “I suggest asking Medic-chan how her last _week_ was…”

The red eyed girl just cringed and everything was disturbingly silent.

“Okay then!” a loud clap from the short woman that was their terrifying teacher made the entire room jump, “Now I want you all to pair off and work on your bushins!!” due to that smile no one really moved, “Good? Great!” the short woman turned and hopped off her desk, heading towards the door, “I’m going to get some coffee, you all practice~”

It wasn’t until the door snapped shut behind her, and all the bushins, Yorihi’s included, disappeared that anyone decided to breathe…

“XIAO-CHAN!!” a glomp seemed to be in progress as the silly boy with his silly hat and silly badger came running down from the top series of seats to check over his friend…

He immediately met her fist to his face, followed by a growl…

Yorihi, along with the rest of the class, found it slightly more disturbing there wasn’t so much as a mumbled “Shut up, Oku.”

\-----

“I see,” came the calm male voice next to Yorihi, “so that’s what happened…”

“Yes, Kuri-sensei,” the blind girl nodded. Honestly, she probably liked Kuri-sensei’s private lessons the best, as his were often the most informative. Unfortunately this meant when with the ‘class’ he spent most of his time with the other students, giving her a task, and supervising her little. Some small part of her told her it meant the large chubby man trusted her to be able to handle the more ‘basic’ things he tried covering with the entire group, while when it was just the two of them it was often intense chakra control exercises and ninjutsu theory.

Currently, the two of them were meditating on the roof of the Academy building, and while it seemed mundane and ‘boring’ on the outside, Yorihi was actually having to focus on running a specific current of chakra through her _entire_ system, without it losing mass or gaining any, and most importantly, she couldn’t _lose_ it amongst the normal flow of her reserves. This was their ‘warm-up’, the first half-hour of training dedicated to tracing this specific flow of chakra and being able to determine it from the rest while manipulating its path. Yorihi honestly had no idea how the man knew when she lost it, even with her chakra sight it was a difficult task to maintain on herself, let alone someone else. It was something she hoped to learn in time.

After about the first week of silence during this exercise, Kuri-sensei had started asking her questions, primarily about recalling the events of her day. At first this highly annoyed and frustrated her as she often lost the bit of chakra while recalling something mundane about the day. Now it took very little of her concentration to recall events, minute details, and tell him whatever he asked, after about two weeks of this she had realized the exercise was helping her to remember things and keep focus, which in turn helped in all other areas of her training. Kuri had simply told her recalling such details was integral to mission reports, thus a skill she’d have to learn eventually anyway…

“You seem distracted,” the chubby man said next to her.

Yorihi couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her lips, but she held her position and track of chakra, “A… little, Kuri-sensei…”

“Tell me,” the man hadn’t so much as moved a muscle, eyes closed, hands in fists connected at chest level, “What is troubling you?” yet still sounded oddly sincere.

Again, the young girl had to resist the urge to sigh and slouch, though she could feel her brows coming up together, worried, “What Moe-sensei did…” – _What she might know…_ -

“Hmp,” there _may_ have been a slight tug on the man’s lips, “She’s always been impertinent, able to put pieces together from the most random bits of information to paint illustrative pictures…” there was something odd about the man’s voice, it wasn’t as set-in-stone as Yorihi expected, “if you suspect she knows something she shouldn’t, don’t worry, she doesn’t.”

At this Yorihi’s eyes went wide open, not that it made any difference to her but she could definitely _feel_ how wide they were with how surprised she felt by his words.

Kuri could obviously feel the fluctuation of the girl’s chakra, obviously what he’d surmised was indeed what had been bothering her, “She is a former member of Company S and ANBU, it’s in her nature to question and put things together, think nothing of it.”

“But, Kuri-sensei-” she honestly had no idea what she was meaning to ask, this entire situation was being turned on its head and the young girl had no idea how it turned out this way. – _Where did I screw up?!_ -

“Calm yourself, focus!” the man’s voice bellowed, easily and effortlessly barking orders… which oddly put the young girl at ease with how quickly her rattled mind and chakra went back to absolute calm. There was the barest of nods from the chubby man, “Now,” his voice was back to that comfortable, flat, even tone, “Did she say anything overt, directly accusing you of whatever it is that has you so worried?”

Yorihi audibly gulped, “N-no…”

“Hmp,” the large man flexed as he breathed out a deep breath, “Then you have nothing to fear, half of how that woman gains information is by trapping others in words. She will openly state obvious things with millions of insinuations, but do you know the easiest way to deal with such information gathering?”

The girl gave a curt shake of the head in the negative, “N-no, Kuri-sensei.”

“Say nothing,” the large bald man could sense the girl’s confusion, so deigned to elaborate, “Information seekers can gain nothing from nothing,” a small clipped chuckle may have escaped him, “They can say and insinuate all they want, but they’ll **_never_** have anything if it’s never said.”

Yorihi blinked behind her bandana, actually feeling somewhat… relieved by what Kuri told her. He may not have known, or willingly never _said_ anything to hint otherwise to her, but he was right, so long as she never slipped, never _said_ anything… and Moe, or anyone else never saw her eyes; she’d never have anything to worry about. A smile actually started to spread on the girl’s face, “Thank you, Kuri-sensei.”

“Hmp,” the man gave a curt barely-there nod as he slowly opened his thin eyes, “Seems our time is up,” he turned to the young girl next to her, “Think we can get an elemental jutsu out of you today?”

Yorihi released a deep breath, waking her entire body and releasing the bit of chakra she had been tracking, before turning in Kuri-sensei’s direction with a smile, “I will certainly try, Kuri-sensei.”

That curt nod before the man slapped his thighs and stood straight, “Very well, let’s get to it then.”

\-----

Kenchou – Bullish

 ‘Genko’ - Genkou – present, current, copy (Genkotsu – fist)


	6. Flesh Drops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By the way, we do missions...

“Good!!” the dusky-pinkette rolled under a wide swing, waiting for the counter that usually followed, “You’re getting closer,” twist out of the way of a kick, move, roll, slid, plant as she prepared for the smaller girl’s strike, “Excellent!” Xiao was forced to buffer the blow, the grin on her face spreading. Ever since her spar with Yorihi about a month ago, Xiao actually started to look forward to Ruri-sensei’s full-contact sessions. The older girl’s excitement climbing with each spar as the odd blind girl got closer and closer to beating her. The girl was insanely smart when it came to Taijutsu; each move was calculated, each miss evaluated, every scrap of the fight processed to get better and better, even consecutive spars showed astounding improvement.

… and for some reason this had Xiao insanely excited.

With a wide dodge, the dark skinned girl rolled an uppercut punch, scraping the younger girl’s jaw. Her keen medical experienced red-eyes could see her pale jaw clinch a fraction of a second before the miss, expecting the blow. Xiao just grinned wider.

Spars for the medic-aspiring-konoichi-in-training had never been this exhilarating. The girl was smaller and younger than her but had a natural affinity for fighting, she wasn’t aggressive, no, Xiao actually found the girl to be mostly passive. But that had only been for about the first week, after that, she guessed Yorihi had finally gotten ‘used’ to her or just snapped as the blind girl started really going on the offensive. Xiao found it amusing that for as ‘effective’ as the girl was at fighting she wasn’t really using a specific style, just adapting to what came at her and modified it for every situation. Each spar was different, and that was probably part of the thrill, because as Xiao kept her distance she was forcing Yorihi to ‘figure out’ a style of attack. Patterns started popping up that red-eyes quickly caught and adapted too and counter, causing the blind girl to adapt again. Despite all the changes Xiao had noticed the girl was excellent for unusual combos, even at her young age she was flexible and could use her movement or a snap jerk to create a hit with wreaking-ball-like force and surprising precision. Xiao often came to a snickering conclusion in the midst of a particularly _interest_ combo: - _This girl’s parents must have been one hell of a combination…_ \- the thought of course only making her grin wider as she was forced to dodge at an odd angle.

All this month she’d been pestering her older brother to teach more advanced forms of their style, surprising him significantly as never before had she been particularly ‘interested’ in Taijutsu. When she told him she’d made a ‘bet’ with another girl in class he’d not sounded very impressed, _annoyed_ was putting it mildly, but when she’d told him the girl’s name and the stakes he seemed to become insanely interested, smirked even. So he’d given her more training but stressed that their style didn’t really have ‘advanced forms’ it was all about the combinations of the moves she already knew and using them more efficiently. So Xiao had been forced to train, and came to each Taijutsu class eager to go up against her opponent as the little girl was really the only one that would push her how she needed, and the only way to ‘learn more’ for her style was get gain more experience by using it. It was a perfect setup.

With another snap-kick going overhead Xiao rolled underneath, going in for a real strike to get the girl off balance… instead she merely leaned back into a handstand, kicking again from that awkward position, forcing Xiao back with a block. Yorihi quickly jumped back to her feet before bounding forward at her opponent again, Xiao crouched low, dug in for a strong ramming hit using her left forearm as a shield while cocking back her right. The smaller girl seemed to halt mid charge, barely an inch from Xiao’s guard before spinning on her heel, kneeing the arm out of the way from the momentum and short space. The red-eyed girl decided to take the opportunity while she was still in place, overcoming the counterbalance from the knee by coming in with a hard right, she was right on the girl, sure to hit directly in the back of her head…

That’s when something weird just happened.

Mid-spin Yorihi reached out with a palm, not a _fist_ , a flat open **_palm_** , deflecting her blow by _guiding_ it off course, while still in the spin forcing it along with her own momentum, bringing the small girl in close, behind her guard. Xiao had enough sense to register this. – _Shit!!_ -  and with the same ‘control’ of her odd movements the smaller girl stopped facing the older girl, one hand holding her deflected punch while the other held two fingers under Xiao’s chin.

The blind girl just  grinned, panting heavily, “I… I-I w-win… X-Xiao-chan…”

Red-eyes just blinked, utterly and truly surprised.

Both girls just panted, catching their breaths from the spar but neither deigning to move from the final position.

When the blood stopped pounding in Xiao’s head and the world seemed the right color a ferocious grin spread on her lips… before cocking her head back in one hell of a laugh, “HAHAHAHA!!”

Yorihi looked utterly surprised, her grip on the older girl finally dropping, allowing the two of them to separate and wind down. When Xiao finally decided to breathe she could see the little girl going red, either confused, embarrassed, or both at her rather out-of-character response. The older girl just smirked - _Suppose it is a bit of a shock… me laughing like this_ \- Xiao was supporting her upper half by her knees, her body just utterly giving in when the girl released her arm, signifying the spar truly was over, but when she looked up she was smiling at the girl.

She’d really did it, beat her, and in barely a month. – _You’re really something… Yorihi…_ -

“Um…?” uncomfortably the smaller girl scratched the side of her reddened cheeks, not sure what she was supposed to do now that she’d ‘won’. If there was one thing to be said about the girl, she was modest, or at least didn’t gloat… or didn’t know how to. She knew her Father liked to boast, her Teacher like to quietly put people down, Bee made a rhyme, and Yugito would give a very snarky cat-like grin. What was Yorihi supposed to do now that she won? This was perhaps the first spar, first opponent, that she had tried really hard to beat, and that’s because the girl didn’t act like any other opponent she’d ever had… so, yea, she felt very accomplished about this victory… so what should she do?

Xiao had just been quiet, grinning uncharacteristically wide as she seemed to just be catching her breath.

“That was very impressive,” both girls turned to face the calm soothing voice, Ruri was standing on the sidelines of their arena looking very pleased with her hands behind her back. When both girls straightened, giving the older woman their full attention as she stepped forward onto their field, her bare feet halting barely an arm’s length away from the two, looking down at them appraisingly, “Do either of you realize how long that single match was?”

“Na-uh,” Xiao waved her hand and head in the negative, still seeming quite drained, while Yorihi next to her simply gave a curt shake, ruffled but not as ‘drained’ as the older girl.

Ruri could only smirk at the two, so focused on their spar they hadn’t realized what had gone on around them, “Class has been over for the last twenty minutes,” both seemed to pale, causing the older woman to smirk more, crossing her arms in front of her, “As much as I admire the grit you both displayed, remember to pay attention to what’s happening around you, it could save your life.”

“Yes, Sensei!” both girl’s chimed in unison, bowing an ‘apology’ to their teacher.

Ruri looked entirely too pleased to worry about punishing them, it was rare she got actually _impressed_ by two students’ spar, “You’ve both improved greatly,” they looked embarrassed by the praise, her small black eyes looking directly at Xiao’s red ones, “I’d always thought you had more in you, guess you just needed the right motivation to bring it out…”

Xiao’s skin darkened around her cheeks, nearing the color of her hair, “Y-yes, Sensei…”

The blonde just smirked, glad the girl had gotten out of her rut, before facing their oddest student, “Yorihi,” the girl seemed to perk up at her name, “At the end, why did you suddenly shift from fists like you’d been using before to an open palm?” it was something that had intrigued Ruri greatly, there was a lot about the girl that just plain ‘strange’, and that was putting it lightly, but while a lot of that could be explained away by her ‘parents’ there were certain quirks she had that made the Taijutsu Master quite curious…

“U-um…” the small girl’s face went down, if she were able to ‘see’ it would have been like staring at the ground when embarrassed, “I-I don’t know, Sensei…” she scratched the side of her face with a small pout, “It just… felt right…”

The tall blonde woman seemed to nod at that, accepting it as an answer while her mind went on its own tangents. The way the girl moved… that last deflecting palm and follow up pinpoint strike… Ruri didn’t want to say it out loud, especially in front of the blind girl, but she had had flashbacks of seeing moves like that executed and resulting in the recipient’s brain literally exploding inside their skull only to ooze out their mouth and nose. It wasn’t pretty the ways she had seen people die from such moves… especially from _Hyuuga_ using such moves… their Jyuuken making a fine paste of any organ with but a ‘gentle touch’. Mentally the woman shuttered, but outwardly stayed perfectly still. It hadn’t been the first time she’d made an unconscious association with the girl and those white eyed bastards, but it was impossible, just a coincidence. She was her cousin’s daughter, that was all.

Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind, the woman’s small black eyes looked directly at the pale girl, “If you are more comfortable with an open palm style, I know several that could help you,” a smirk from the tattooed woman, oh the uproar the Raikage would make learning his daughter wasn’t learning how to ‘properly’ punch things, “There are many advantages to an open-handed style, deflecting as you showed, and grappling for another…”

The girl seemed to brighten at that, honestly excited, “I’d like that very much Ruri-sensei!”

Xiao snickered at the young girl’s enthusiasm while Ruri just stayed smiling, “I’ll think of something for our next session,” she pointed behind the girl’s, “For now, it’s off to missions for you…”

Xiao groaned, already starting to feel stiff as her muscles cooled down.

Yorihi though looked confused, her blue-black brows quirking over her bandana, “um, Sensei?” her head tilted, “Don’t I have Moe-sensei today?” not that she was in a rush to have to deal with the crazy woman, it was just strange to have a deviation from her routine.

A blonde brow rose on their tattooed sensei, “Were you not informed?” at the raised brow on the girl’s face it was obvious she had no idea what Ruri was talking about. The tall woman just sighed heavily, of course Kuri and Moe would leave it to _her_ to actually tell the girl anything remotely important – _Lazy bastards_ \- the woman tried not to growl, taking a bit of a calming breath before looking at her student, “Today is our monthly evaluations, the three of us will be mulling over paperwork, grading and evaluating the other teachers…”

A blue-black brow rose, the girl’s mostly covered face seemed obviously skeptical, “Monthly?”

Sometimes Ruri hated perceptive students, “Yes, monthly,” she did _not_ huff, “We generally ignore the first month of the semester as little has occurred and it gave us more time to get you settled with the crash course,” part of the blonde wondered if the perceptive _blind_ girl would notice she was lying through her teeth. Last month when the dreaded ‘paperwork day’ came around the three of them had quickly grabbed on to the excuse of teaching Yorihi as reason enough to leave the lower teachers to their own devices. Moe highly approved as the little sadist was lazy, Kuri didn’t care either way, and to be honest Ruri wasn’t a big fan of dealing with whiny lower teachers and simple nutritional fixes. But alas, they could only put off their work so long… if only…

Thankfully Yorihi seemed to accept the tall woman’s response as fact, “So what will I be doing instead?”

“Like I said,” small black eyes pointed looked at Xiao, “You will be doing missions like the other students, Xiao,” the older girl straightened, “Do you mind having her tag along with you and Oku?” a quick nod was all the response the teacher needed before turning back to the blind girl, “Simply go with Xiao and Oku, pay attention to what they do as best you can, this will be a bit different from what you’re used to, but missions are important for the graduating students, to give them experience with the process.”

“Yes, Ruri-sensei!” the dark haired girl have a quick nod, turning in Xiao’s direction obviously not ‘sure’ about this new assignment but willing to do it.

Ruri just smiled at her students, “I’m sure Oku is waiting on the both of you, I informed him earlier so he went ahead to get some missions,” the tall woman walked between the two girls, “Now if you don’t mind, I too have work to do, dismissed.”

“Yes sensei!” both girls spoke behind the woman who in a flash was gone.

Xiao gave a low whistle, “Wow,” red eyes turned on the blind girl, “so you haven’t done any missions yet, huh?” Yorihi gave a simple shake of the head in the negative, causing the older girl to chuckle, placing her hands on her hips, “Man they are _really_ pushing you through this stuff fast if they’re totally ignoring that stuff…”

“What stuff?” a blue-black brow rose over the bandana as the two girl’s started back to the academy, assumedly to catch up with Oku.

“Missions,” the dusky-pinkette gave a deep unappreciative sigh, “Can’t believe none of them even gave you a rundown of them, all of us are required to complete a certain number before applying to graduate…” at the continued blank look on the smaller girl Xiao sighed even harder, realizing _she_ was going to have to be the one to explain it all the younger girl, “Okay, well, it’s pretty simple,” she ran a hand through her bangs, collecting her thoughts, “As the graduating class, we should pretty much know all we need to, to become shinobi right?”

“Um…” Yorihi looked nervous, “I suppose…”

Xiao shot her a glance, then sighed again, “You’re a special case, ugh,” shaking her head quickly the older girl took a deep breath, centering herself and getting in her ‘serious’ mode to explain this, it was up to her to teach her sparring partner properly, “Well, everything I’m assuming they’re cramming into your afternoon classes are basically four to five years’ worth of information _we_ normally learn over the regular course, following so far?”

Yorihi nodded, hopping onto one of the bridges they had to cross from the outside plateaus towards the academy.

“Alright, well like I said, we’re the graduating class,” a dark hand was held up as if making a serious point, “At this point in our training we’re supposed to know all the basics, our class is essentially at the ‘practical’ stage, we know all the theories now we have to actually _use_ them adequately before they give us our headbands…” red-eyes glanced at the girl next to her, “following?”

“Mm,” another quick nod from the blind girl.

“Soooo…” the girl dragged the word, staring ahead as if bored, “We spend half the day in ‘practical’ lessons, being evaluated by the _Master_ teachers, and the other half either under their supervision for specific lessons or doing missions to fill our quota,” there was a light shrug, “We mostly do missions…”

A brow quirked on the younger girl’s face, “What kind of missions?”

“Weeding, lizard-walking, painting, fixing bridges...” Xiao said flatly, “Basically anything anyone in the village is too lazy to do themselves, we get paid to do…”

Blue-black brow rose higher, “We get paid?”

Red eyes stared at the blind girl incredulously, then sighed when she realized the gesture was totally lost on her, “Yes we get paid,” another grumbling sigh, “Though I swear its half what we should be…” she crossed her arms in a huff, “I’ve heard from my brother that in other villages these odd-jobs are listed as ‘D-rank’ missions for genin, pff…” she blew dusky pink bangs out of her eyes, “suppose I should be glad we get these boring things as academy students though, even if at half pay…”

Yorihi’s brow remained up, curious about this apparent difference between their village and others, “Why do we get these as academy students unlike other villages?”

Red eyes just stared at the smaller girl, stopping in the middle of the bridge to _seriously_ look at her, “You’re serious, aren’t you?” that pout and furrowed dark brows was all the response the older academy student needed, she sighed, “Well, for starters we’re a bit… ‘odd’ compared to the other major villages, but it all comes back to the fact we have such a smaller population…” the younger girl’s head tilted, obviously not getting what the older was saying. Another sigh, “ugh, look, of the 5 major shinobi villages, Kumo is the _smallest_ , in both size and population, yet!” she raised a hand making a point, “We have one of the strongest military forces _and_ the best economy, why is this?”

“Um…” the tilt angle of the younger girl’s head seemed to increase, she obviously had no idea.

Xiao rubbed her eyes, giving another sigh, “The reason is how we run things,” lowering her hand she looked directly at the girl, very serious, “ _Every_ person that lives in this village is qualified at least genin level, even our ‘civilians’, and we keep our internal revenue stable by having the ‘D-rank’ missions done by our academy students. Even if none of us pass, we’d still have an income and means to keep our economy going, following me so far?”

“I think so…” Yorihi wasn’t really but some of this was starting to sound familiar, like a lesson she had long ago but was fuzzy with age. Bachiko, who was listening in, sounded very, very confused…

Xiao smirked at the girl trying, “Well our missions provide another reason why our village is not to be messed with, despite our size,” the girl grinned, honestly proud of her home, “We make **_sure_** our genin are really qualified for shinobi life and equipped with all the skills they’ll need, such as teamwork, skills, but most importantly experience,” her smile softened, “Like I said, we’re in the ‘practical’ phase of our training, even if you’re being rushed through, this stuff is still just as important to you as it is to me,” she reached out and tuffed Yorihi’s bangs for some reason, giggling as the girl pouted, “If anything you’ll probably need the experience more…”

A pale hand couldn’t help run through her bangs again; Xiao had moved it all out of place! With an annoyed grunt the girl gave up, still scowling at her ruffled hair, “Why do you say that, Xiao-chan?”

The dusky-pinkette just snickered as the smaller girl fussed with her bangs, wondering why it mattered, it wasn’t like she could ‘see’ it, “Well cause you’re in the crash course, they only do that with students they plan to have in higher ranking specialty stuff…” Yorihi just raised a brow at her, causing the older girl to snort, “Hey I want to be a medic, but they don’t normally train up medics unless they’re chuunin with insane chakra control, so I’m gonna have to do some general stuff and train hard till I get promoted, you,” she waved her hand around Yorihi causing the girl to tilt her head, “Are probably going to be whisked away by ANBU or something soon as you’re out, never to see the likes of us ‘normal’ shinobi ever again…”

At the comment the blind girl stopped, pouting. She’d never really thought about what she was going to be doing when she was done with all this academy stuff, she knew she’d be a konoichi and start serving the village like the rest of her family sure but never really the specifics of it all. What was she going to do? And why did she suddenly feel depressed about probably never seeing Xiao and the others again? The girl had helped her out, and Oku was nice, and even some of the others were funny to watch but… what if she never saw them again?

Noticing Yorihi wasn’t following her anymore, Xiao stopped as well, turning around to see the younger girl pouting, “Hey, you okay?”

“I just never really thought about it before,” her voice was a low whisper, obviously confused by this sudden situation.

Dusky pink brows furrowed as Xiao looked at the younger girl, “Oh c’mon, it’s not that big’a deal,” she put her hands on her hips looking down at the girl seriously, hoping her voice displayed what the girl couldn’t see of her body language, “You’re gonna be something special, the teachers know it, you’re parents obviously know it if they signed you up for this thing and trained you as much as you are,” Yorihi seemed to glance up to the older girl, facing her at least, and seemed a bit surprised. Xiao could only smirk slightly at the look on the girl’s mostly covered face, it was really bordering on adorable, “Heh, c’mon don’t pout like that… it’s not like you’re through with us already?” the older girl gave a grin she was sure Oku would be proud of and was damn glad no one was around to see it, “You’ll be sick of us by the time the test comes around so don’t worry about it…”

That brought a smile from the blind girl’s lips, even if she could totally see that stupid grin Xiao was giving through her bandana, there was something comforting in the older girl’s words and actions.

“Now c’mon,” Xiao turned heel and started walking, waving a ‘come’ gesture over her shoulder out of habit, “Oku’s probably worried silly that we haven’t shown up yet…”

“Mm,” Yorihi nodded, catching up to the girl quickly, though there was something she had been wondering since Ruri gave them the assignment, “Xiao-chan?”

“Hm?” the girl grunted, putting her  hands behind her head to both support her neck and stretch slightly, still feeling a bit stiff from their spar.

“Um…” she held up a pale hand to her lips, thinking of the best way to word her question, “Why are we going to see Oku-kun?” she thought it was funny when Ruri had mentioned him getting missions for them, and she had definitely noticed that Xiao and Oku tended to drift towards one another more than the other students, of course a lot of other students seemed to pair off like that and she’d been wondering if there was something she was missing…

Xiao just raised a pink brow, lazily glancing at the girl, “Well that’s cause he’s most likely to be my partner when we graduate…” at the raised brow the dark skinned girl realized she’d have to elaborate, apparently _another_ thing the teachers had failed to mention to the younger girl. – _Man that crash course must be something if they aren’t even covering ‘basic’ basic stuff like this_ \- there was a snort as she blew her pink bangs out of her face, “Ugh, remember when I said our village had the smallest population of the five major villages?” she could see the nod from the dark haired girl out of the corner of her eye, “Well because of that we don’t _exactly_ have the numbers for large teams like the other villages,” red eyes glanced down at the blind girl, making sure she was paying attention, “Where larger villages like Kiri and Konoha have three-man cells, and Iwa can have anywhere from four to five man teams, we train in ‘pairs’, building up the strengths and bonds of two shinobi,” she shrugged lightly, recalling all the stuff her brother told her about partners compared to the large ‘teams’ from other villages, “Honestly I think half the reason we’re so much stronger per shinobi is because of this smaller system,” there was a light smirk on the older girl, “But to further answer your question, typically in our first year they pair us up to find who we’re most likely compatible with,” she shrugged, “By the end of our second we pretty much know who they are…”

Yorihi frowned, feeling a bit left out of this intricate system, “Then who do you think I will be paired with?”

The dusky-pinkette shrugged, rubbing her chin in thought, “Who knows?” she looked the younger girl over, “my guess is part of their rushing you through is getting the best approximation of your skills to figure out who to pair you up with,” she hummed in curiosity, “they might go with someone with more experience…”a snort, “Definitely gonna be picked up by ANBU…”

A grunt from the smaller girl, truly wondering what was going to happen to her after this stint at the academy. ANBU sounded pretty serious, scary even, and while she’d heard of them, even met apparently the Commanders and gotten candy from them, she didn’t know what would happen if Xiao’s speculations were right. Through her bond she could feel Bachiko ruffling, obviously not liking any of the insinuations any of this conversation was bringing, either her being inducted into the more covert forces at such a young age or the prospect of getting a ‘partner’ neither had met. Part of Yorihi wondered what had his fur on end…

“Oh yea!” Xiao stopped mid-step, snapping her fingers before turning to the blind girl, “You’re coming home with me today.”

A blue-black brow quirked, “I am?”

The red eyed girl just grinned, “I have to get you started on learning the chakra field, you won after all!” Yorihi obviously blushed, nearly forgetting in all the conversation of everything else and the excitement of the achievement. Xiao just grinned reading everything in the way the girl stiffened, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get it easy, it’ll help with your control and give you another way to sense out your opponents!”

An honest smile appeared on the girl’s pale features, “Thank you, Xiao-chan.”

A dark hand waved, “Don’t thank me yet, I’m just keeping up my end of the bargain,” a snort as the older girl tried to appear nonchalant. The blind girl wasn’t buying it one bit. “So hey,” Xiao turned to Yorihi, “You got a way to tell your parents you won’t be going straight home?”

The smaller girl instantly paled, several things running through her thoughts at once. She should tell her Father, but doing so would reveal her parentage to her classmate which might make her ‘lose’ this whole ‘keeping secrets’ thing she had going with the Raikage and Kemui… she could tell Kemui, the assassin still worked at the school right? – _No wait… Ruri-sensei said the teachers were being evaluated… so Kemui-sama would be busy right?_ \- there were her Uncle and ‘Aunt’ of sorts... – _Uhh…_ \- even Bachiko was shaking his head at that, how does one explain why they know the two village Jinchuuriki/high ranking Jounin without explaining how she was related to them? – _Um… Reki-baba?_ \- both her and the cat were a bit… _skeptical_ to go that route… not knowing if she wanted to force her grandmother on any of her classmates, the woman was… _eccentric_ , along with Mei-chan and Jun-kun. All this pondering was wrapped up in a single hesitant word as the girl held her finger up to her lip confused, “Um…”

A dusky-pink brow just rose as the older girl stared at Yorihi skeptically, “You really like that mysterious angle don’t you?” at the younger girl’s brighter blushing Xiao just sighed, running her hand through her hair, “Eh, fine, I’ll send a message to my brother, he’ll likely be able to get in contact with your parents,” before Yorihi could so much as get a word in Xiao had turned to the side and was already running her hands through a few seals, ending in an odd seal she didn’t recognize with the pinkies and forefingers of her hands touching and the knuckles of the middle, ring and thumbs touching before slamming her hand on the ground, “ _Kuchiyose no jutsu!!_ ”

A burst of smoke erupted from the spot Xiao had placed her hand, along with sparks of lighting, and as it cleared away Yorihi was quite surprised to see something _squirming_.

“Mizu-chan,” Xiao called out, pulling her hand up and the weird squirming thing seemed to follow. At first it looked like a gooey, squirming yellow orb, but as Xiao moved to stand up the thing bounced once, twice, before finally seeming to ‘land’ in the air, unraveling itself to appear to be a kind of flat disk looking creature with a long pointed tail. The top was a dark blue while the underneath was the pale yellow she’d originally saw, the thing was barely the size of both of Xiao’s hands together, its body rippling as it just seemed to float, following her hand up into the air. Finally two little beads on top opened to reveal yellow eyes, seeming to pop as the thing blinked, releasing a rhythmic chirping before flying swiftly around the pink haired girl’s arm, apparently very excited. Xiao just seemed to grin wide, chuckling at the odd creature’s antics.

Yorihi just stared, tilting her head and trying to grasp what just happened. One second Xiao did an odd series of seals, next she put her hand to the ground and out popped this weird… thing.

Xiao was currently grinning, rubbing the odd creature on its underbelly, “It’s been awhile Mizu-chan,” more of the rhythmic chirping, eliciting another strange giggle from the older girl. When she finally noticed the utterly confused look on the blind girl’s face the dusky-pinkette blushed, “Uh,” realizing how weird this must have looked, the class hardass giggling with a weird cute creature, “Gimme your hand,” before Yorihi could so much as question, Xiao had reached out and grabbed her nearest hand, holding it out flat and palm up, “Now put some chakra into it, a **_very_** small amount.”

Not one to really question Yorihi did as instructed, coating her hand in a thin layer of chakra as best she could wondering what it was for. After a second she got her answer, as the odd creature seemed to chirp some more, swaying this way and that in the air before settling itself flatly on the blind girl’s hand. She stiffened not sure what to do, the sensation of the creature’s skin was strange, not quite smooth with a roughness like scales that she’d never felt. It was almost leathery but cool, and there was another sensation she recognized instantly. The creature was feeding on the light amount of chakra in her hand, it had attracted it and that was why Xiao had asked her to do it. Yorihi looked thoroughly surprised, feeling the strangeness of its underbelly as it fluttered its body happily nibbling on her chakra, “What is it?”

Xiao had that wide grin from their fight, obviously quite proud of herself, “This is Mizu-chan, one of the Minazuki my family look after,” her smile seemed to grow as she channeled chakra into her finger, attracting the weird creature’s attention causing it to leave Yorihi’s open palm and float towards its mistress, “I’m one of the youngest in my family to be able to summon them,” she scratched the strange disk-like creature under its chin, “We use them a lot in our medicines, others tend to call them ‘flying devilfish’ since they look essentially like stingrays,” the yellow and blue Minazuki started floating around, twirling around Xiao in a lazy yet excited motion, “You’ll get to meet more of them later, for now,” she twirled her finger, seemingly giving the flying devilfish a command to listen as it hovered in front of her finger, “I need you to tell Aniki Yorihi,” she pointed at the blind girl causing the weird thing’s beady yellow eyes to travel to her, “Is coming home with me, and that he needs to tell her parents, got it?”

A rhythmic chirping was her response as the thing seemed to fold in on itself and twirl in strange patterns, assumedly an ‘understanding’ response.

Yorihi just raised a brow as the thing seemed to **_poof!_** After giving its weird display. Bachiko was mentioning something about ‘tasty seafood’ she blatantly ignored…

“Well,” dark hands clapped as Xiao turned to her fellow student, “I think we’ve held Oku up plenty,” there may or may not have been something devious in the smirk the older girl gave the younger, “Let’s go get these silly missions done with so I can start teaching you some interesting stuff, huh?”

A tight smile came to Yorihi’s lips, not sure what to make of that weird creature or the devious look on Xiao’s face, not to mention her promises of ‘training’, “If you says so…” a snicker rose to the younger girl’s face as she let the last word drop with obvious humor, “ _sensei_.”

Red eyes glared at the smaller girl flatly, “If you could only see the glare I’m giving you right now…”

Yorihi just smiled, thinking it looked hilarious.

\-----

 “Why do we grade using paper?” Moe grumbled from her corner of the round table the Triad were strategically seated at, a stack of student reports and evaluations sitting to her left, right and in front. There were a good thousand students at any given time at the Kumo academy and while these three weren’t the **_only_** teachers, they were the primary heads of their respective aspects of teaching. Thus the stacks of papers submitted by _other_ teachers that needed their approval and input on… to say Moe was a ‘decent’ team player was stretching a lot of assumptions. The red-almost-black haired woman was a genjutsu **_MASTER_** , her knowledge of the subject was invaluable… it didn’t automatically make her a decent human being wanting to teach for the betterment of mankind, let alone the village.

Ruri may have had a bit of a smirk rising on her tattooed face as she didn’t so much as pause her brush writing out a note to one of the ‘lower’ teacher’s about a student’s taijutsu performance, “Paper is a common medium to relay messages,” the smirk may or may not have grown as she put the note in her ‘done’ pile, which was significantly bigger than the shorter woman next to her, “Unless you want to actually _speak_ to the other instructors…” the taijutsu master was in far too much of a good mood, seeing the progress of her students earlier to let anything the depressing midget next to her said or the drab complaints of her staff to get to her.

There was a distinct growl to the tall woman’s left, and the shuffling of papers off the small woman’s larger piles.

Kuri, sitting opposite Ruri, was quickly demolishing his paperwork, thin eyes skimming each line and evaluation expertly. Despite his speed and efficiently with being rid of the bane of everyone’s existence, he never missed a single word or meaning trying to be conveyed, and while his notes were short and simple, unlike the complex menageries Moe tended to write, or the in-depth instruction by Ruri, he never failed to get out what needed to be said. Learning was an eternal process, and part of him wondered if the reason his piles were always so much distinctly smaller than the two women was because he was ensuring the ninjutsu instructors under him continued learning the most efficient ways to teach and discover new methods on their own. He was their boss, not their parent, he wasn’t going to hold their hand, “We’re going to have to do half your piles to be done by the end of the day anyway, so do not complain so much…”

Dark green eyes leaned out from behind her piles to glare at the large chubby man, “Excuse me, genjutsu is a fine _art_ ,” at the narrow side glance that she was sure was calling her a baby, the shorter woman sat back in her chair in a huff, “Unlike you two, who have it _much_ easier to teach these kids, and their teachers, ninjutsu and taijutsu, respectively,” a pale hand waved gesturing to the chubby man and tall woman across from her, “I have difficulty just getting a _basic_ concept by these supposed instructors… honestly, we should hold a proficiency test to make sure the idiots we have doing stints here actually _know_ what they’re trying to teach!”

“We do,” Ruri wrote off another note, some girl wasn’t getting proper nutrition to accommodate her demanding work out, simple enough fix, “You just like to complain about this every time we take a day to do paperwork…” a bald head across from the blonde woman may or may not have nodded his silent agreement.

Another growl from the small woman as she indignantly took off a single piece of paper from her pile, “Moe-sensei, my class doesn’t seem to understand the concept behind the bushin, they see it as a useless technique and most of them are over using their chakra and creating useless clones… what do I do?” the paper went flying over her shoulder as the woman gave the other two a disgruntled glare of justification.

Kuri was still, at least gracing the woman with a solid glance, while Ruri blinked. Both gave each other a look before turning back to the shorter woman in unison, “Fire him,” and went back to work.

“Augh!” pale hands went up, “See! _SEE!_ ” she pulled off a good chunk of one of her stacks and waved it at the other two, “This is the kind of idiocy I have to deal with!” indignantly she threw the grabbed papers on the floor, typically where they put the ‘done’ pile, “ _basic_ genjutsu and the idiot didn’t even realize he answered his own damn question!”

Ruri leaned on one arm; taking a break as it was always fun watching the shorter woman go on a rant of just how idiotic everyone else was, “Why not just quit and go back to ANBU?” there wasn’t a smirk on her face, of course not.

Dark green eyes glared over those half-moon spectacles, “and let this idiocy and depreciation of my art continue for another generation?”  she kicked one stack over, “Hell no!”

The stack happened to spill over on to Kuri’s side of the table, the stern man simply giving it a mild glare before turning to the short woman, paper he’d managed to ‘save’ in one hand and brush in the other, “Much of what genjutsu teaches is taught in the basics of ninjutsu…” he moved several of her papers out of his way with an elbow before continuing his work, and chiding, “we could get on well without you…”

Dark green eyes narrowed into slits, “there’s a reason I’m here,” arms crossed over her chest as she huffed, leaning back enough in her chair to be balancing on its back legs, “and as much as I’d _love_ to go back to my old job,” there may or may not have been a snort, “it would be to the detriment of this village, genjutsu is hard enough for an adult to learn with no experience, children are much more ‘ _creative_ ’ and malleable to learning its uses…” yes, there were evil maniacal hand gestures involved.

There may or may not have been a snort from the large man’s corner of the round table.

“I agree,” all writing stopped as the chubby man and short woman turned to Ruri, who was writing another note, “Raikage-sama assigned you to help us for a reason, we’re all here to balance this school’s teachings in hopes of creating more balanced and stronger students,” her small black eyes glanced from one of her cohorts to the other, “Kuri and I have worked together for ages, we know how best to fit our skills and work off them, you,” she pointed a brush at the diminutive woman, “have managed to worm yourself into our style and adapted well around us, that is how genjutsu works best, supporting and helping our more ‘bolder’ styles,” a light smirk at the shorter woman, “so that while we distract with heavy damage you work in the shadows and go for the more subtle kill…”

It was quiet for a moment.

“If I didn’t know you were insulting me I’d probably take that as some manner of compliment,” the short woman flatly glared at the tall tattooed blonde.

Ruri only smirked openly at the accusation, obviously having fun with toying with their comrade.

Despite what Moe said, she couldn’t help the growing smirk on her features as well, the blonde knuckle-dragger was right, genjutsu was all about ‘subtlety’ and that was a fine art and hard to teach. The red-almost-black haired woman leaned back, looking at the ceiling as she tried to figure out the best way to teach ‘subtlety’, “Auugh…” then groaned when she realized who would probably be best to help her…

“Come to the conclusion we did several months ago?” Kuri was not cheeky, not once in his life was he ever cheeky as he ignored the woman burying her head in her hands and he continued his work, he only had a few more papers left to deal with.

“Whhhhhhyyyyy….?” Moe’s voice reached that high pitch that, to a normal human being, would probably be considered cute and make them want to help the woman, the other two were long since immune.

“Kemui-sensei was sent here to teach for a reason,” long blonde bangs did very little to hide that growing smug smirk on the taijutsu master’s face.

Dark green eyes behind half-moon spectacles glared openly, “The woman doesn’t even _use_ chakra for anything she teaches,” arms went up in frustration, “it’s all _acting!!_ ”

“And efficient,” Kuri apparently deemed now good enough to speak, as he grabbed a paper from the fallen stack from the genjutsu master’s side of the round table, “Not only does she teach the students better means of spying then all **_three_ ** of us could come up with, her course introduced a whole new world view…”

“A very depressing one,” Moe crossed her arms while leaning back on her chair.

“This? Coming from you?” Ruri hadn’t even looked up from her paper, sounded like this sensei was just being lazy; she’d have to deal with the woman later, “even you have to admit you learned something from her initial course…”

Narrow dark green slits stared at the giant woman, “the depths of paranoia that woman employs is clinical, she should be sent over to R&D…”

The page was set down as small black eyes stared at the smaller woman directly, “And yet she was correct,” Ruri leaned on her arms in a more serious position, “Since her class was introduce we’ve actually had a rise in creative and intuitive responses by our students, this view point, while dark and _depressing_ as you put it,” the woman may have waved her hand with a smirk at the dower red-almost-black haired woman, “it has shown to be beneficial, the students _pay more attention_ , and isn’t that something you’ve been complaining about for years?”

The glare formed into a pout, “I still do not like admitting needing the help of someone not even a shinobi…”

“She earned that flak-vest same as you,” the larger woman spoke firmly, ignoring as the other simply rolled her eyes, “We should respect the wisdom of our senior, even if we disagree with her methods…”

Dark green eyes rolled.

“Did you know she is a wind type?” both women turned on their quiet male companion, dutifully filling out their lazy genjutsu master’s paperwork. The large chubby man didn’t turn towards either but continued when he realize they were expecting more from him, “You both were unwilling to admit she is shinobi material, I was merely stating an observation.”

A red-almost-black brow rose skeptically, “She’s **_not_** …”

A blonde brow across from the man rose as well, but more curious, “When did you find this out?”

Thin eyes turned on the dark skinned woman, “Several months ago, she requested an evaluation, I agreed.” Both women stared, yet again expecting more from his simple answer, there may or may not have been a grunt as the large man set his brush and coworker’s papers down, “Despite what may be common knowledge, the woman actually has a wide array of knowledge on ninjutsu skills, she merely does not use them as it would be more _efficient_ with her low reserves to simply ignore the skills exist,” unconsciously a chubby hand rose and rubbed under the man’s chin, “though the sudden interest was odd…”

“Seriously,” Moe looked far from convinced, “That woman can do more than throw knives?”

There was a small chuckle from the shorter woman’s right, “that woman is far more proficient then simply twiddling around a knife,” dark green eyes glared flatly at the larger woman, she merely shrugged, setting her head on one hand on the table, “when she was first assigned to us, I offered a ‘friendly’ spar with her, I knew she sparred with my cousins all the time, so I was curious how well I could match up…”

“How did that go?” the large man was back to doing their lazy cohort’s papers, but he had peeked a thin glance to his partner, apparently actually curious.

Ruri gave him a slight smirk, “We never got to trade blows, but I’ll tell you what she told me,” the blonde woman leaned back, clearing her throat, “ ‘No… because I would kill you.’”

It almost sounded like someone fell.

“WHAT KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?!” Moe may or may not have been pulling herself up off the ground, glaring at the taller woman.

Ruri’s smirk grew, as the large woman crossed her arms and turned to look directly at their disheveled comrade, “The right one,” her eyes shifted to Kuri who was staring at her, “As she put it, she knew I was a master in taijutsu and kenjutsu, her own proficiencies, and if we fought, even a ‘friendly’ spar I’d do it seriously…”

“You would,” the large man said bluntly.

Her smirk grew as she continued, “… and if I was serious, she’d have to get ‘serious’, which would mean she would kill me,” the blonde turned to the shorter red-almost-black haired woman, “You remember those people, they were serious about everything, seems she still keeps to that way of thinking…”

Dark green eyes rolled as the shorter woman huffed in her chair, “sounds like she was calling you weak…”

Ruri could only smile, knowing the short woman would think that, “On the contrary, she was openly stating I was superior,” brows rose, to which the blonde only smirked humbly, “I’m a master in the martial arts, her skills are far above par, this is true, but her proficiency is _killing_ not _fighting_ , so by the end of the spar I would be running out as I wouldn’t finish her off and she would be forced to kill me as her training has taught her,” there was a chuckle as her small black eyes looked at the shorter woman, “Thought you understood all these _subtle_ things?”

Dark green eyes rolled again, “that woman is insane…”

“Hmm,” Kuri shuffled around some papers, apparently one teacher had been sending in multiple requests about the same inane issue to Moe, he merely set them all off to the side in their own pile while continuing their discussion, “Though, with the woman’s skill set, it is a wonder the Raikage had her train his daughter,” there was _not_ a grumble in his voice, “with the girl’s propensity for excessive chakra use,” an event last week set into his mind’s eye about their odd student. As the head of all things ‘ninjutsu’ he’d been delegated to teaching the girl hand seals, the skill markedly more _difficult_ to teach with her lack of sight, but strangely enough the girl seemed more proficient to simply _force_ her chakra to act how she wanted, a skill most only grasped at chuunin and became proficient with in higher jounin status, after having excessive years of experience with how chakra worked for techniques. The girl knew how to bend chakra to her will, hers just happened to be wild and unstable for some reason, he surmised it was due to her large reserves and previous training used to ‘grow’ them. Either way, teaching her seals seemed almost pointless, she knew their forms, their concepts and what was _intended_ for their use, but it seemed almost unnecessary for her. Almost. The day last week he had been thinking about he had caught her meditating, going through the seals, even _half_ -seals, which he hadn’t taught her, and realized she must have already known the seals, just was letting him ‘teach’ her. When confronted she had told him her ‘Teacher’, Kemui obviously, had taught her before she’d left, only she’d never quite understood what they were for until he had fully explained it to her. Even still, in practice she would spend more chakra, trying to _force_ it how she wanted instead of using the seals; he thought it was quite ridiculous for someone her age. Unconsciously the man’s thin eyes glanced at the blonde woman across from him as an odd thought ran through his head. – _Stubbornness seems to run in the family…_ -

Ruri happened to look up from her own paperwork, blinking owlishly as her partner stared a moment more, as if she were supposed to respond to his statement. Her brush was set down as the bulky woman sat back in her chair, considering his words and not noticing his look, “Well Yorihi is his daughter,” a dark tattooed hand went through the woman’s long bangs, “Perhaps he merely wanted someone he could trust to watch her…”

“Pfft,” dark green eyes rolled as Moe seemed to make a show of scribbling out a note to one of her _less_ moronic subordinates. With the continued silence her eyes quickly glanced over those half-moon spectacles at the demanding glares of her comrades. She set the paper down, crossing her arms and looking at them seriously, “Do I have to spell it out to you?”

Kuri simply gave a huff and closed his eyes, pretending to be bored with the topic, as Ruri set her head on one hand on the table, small black eyes flatly staring at the small woman, “Use small words…”

Another paper went flying as a disturbingly ‘cute’ smirk came to the short woman’s face, “it’s obvious why he had her train the girl,” she leaned forward, putting all her weight on one hand mirroring the taller woman’s position, “as there was a fifty-fifty chance she’d be exactly like her!”

Two sets of eyes stared flatly, before an obvious groan was heard, “Not you too,” Ruri was rubbing her eyes giving an obviously exasperated appearance.

“Come on!” Moe looked entirely too interested in the topic, it was sparking her cuteness into overdrive, “You’ve seen the assassin’s supposed son?” a wicked grin was spreading on the small woman’s face, “minus the white hair, he looks just like her, there’s no way those two aren’t related…”

“And what about the rest of the boy?” small black eyes flatly glared at the crazy midget, “he looks like his mother other than those black eyes-”

The wicked grin grew, “He’s got to have _something_ from his father~”

If Ruri didn’t know any better the little nutjob was poignantly pointing at her own black eyes, which happened to be _quite_ reminiscent of her cousins. They happened to narrow more as she flatly glared at the woman, “I am _not_ feeding into this absurd discussion…”

“Argh!” Moe was gripping the air and seemingly hopping in her seat, “You _have_ to think something’s odd!!” pale hands slammed on the table, the woman’s large eyes suddenly serious on the dark skinned woman, “That _convenient_ story about some long lost daughter of Taichou’s, given up in some remote village,” a hand twirl for effect, “a sordid affair outside Kumo for fear of his father’s wrath,” some flair was being added along with wide hand gestures as the genjutsu master recounted the story fed them about the girl’s origins, “ _That_ woman being their only contact for prolong periods as she was the only one either trusted,” the sarcasm was a bit thick in this statement showing just how much Moe believed any of this, “then that whatever Konoha attack during the war, _conveniently_ killing everyone **_but_** his daughter, whom the assassin retrieved?” she dropped like a puppet without strings at the end of her flowery performance, still poignantly glaring at the larger woman, “after bitching at me about _subtlety_ , you **can NOT** tell me you believe that bullshit?”

Small black eyes stared flatly before the woman turned away and shuffled through her papers, “It’s possible.”

“HA!” Moe leaned over the table, pointing at the woman, “See, even blood doesn’t believe it!!”

Those black eyes were glaring poignantly again at the grinning midget, “We’re barely blood,” the way Ruri’s jaw tightened seemed to suggest she was moments away from snapping at Moe’s pointing finger, “And it is not my place to much **_care_** where my cousin sires his children or with whom.”

The midget seemed to noticeably deflate as the tall woman turned back to her papers, “Well you’re no fun…”

A bald head across from the woman simply shook, “Linage means little,” Kuri’s low baritone broke through to the two woman, “All that matters is she is a student we are to teach.”

A small smirk rose on the tattooed woman’s face as she gave the barest nods of approval.

Moe on the other hand, “You’re kidding right?” she sent the man a flat glare, to which his thin eyes only met without a word. A groan escaped the shorter woman as she set her head on a propped hand, “What if her _problems_ stem from something on her mother’s side, hmm?” a dark red brow rose, “What if her control being ‘off’ or her, uh…” dark green eyes turned on the blonde, “what’s her problem with you?”

“Holding back…?” a blond brow rose without turning to look at the other woman unsure. In truth Ruri had little issue with the girl when it came to taijutsu and kenjutsu, if anything the girl seemed a natural with her bare hands and she obviously showed some favor with weapons. What surprised her most was the girl’s unnatural proficiency with knives, a note that was now making her question the crazy midget and many other’s assumptions about her maternity, but Yorihi had informed her the girl’s previous master had been quite the stickler for knives and it wasn’t any sort of ‘natural’ talent. The only thing about the girl that worried the blonde was her lack of social graces. Sure, the girl was polite, more so then she ever thought possible from the Raikage’s progeny, but it was all so… haughty? The girl’s respect was worn on her sleeve, and no matter how ‘polite’ she was it was always quite obvious whether or not she thought you were worth the dirt beneath her sandals. A unique skill, considering she was blind, and something that reminded the tall woman distinctly of her distant cousin.

Suddenly Ruri was feeling quite grateful for Xiao’s initiative to spar with the girl, as the two had obviously garnered some ‘bond’… as odd as it was.

“Hmp,” There was a grunt from the male corner of their round table, as Kuri yet again dealt with another of Moe’s forsaken papers, “If your assumptions were true, the girl would have impeccable control,” a swift grab of another sheet.

A dark-red-bordering-on-black brow quirked, “What if this is what happens when one of those guys has overly large reserves?” Moe was pondering something as her gaze went towards the ceiling, “that wolf-woman always has nearly-none-existent reserves, with the kind of control that can tamper with some of my best genjutsu…”

A blonde brow rose as Ruri turned to the shorter pondering woman, “You’ve tried genjutsu on a fellow teacher?”

Dark green eyes blinked, focusing on the tall woman, “Uh, yea,” a dark red brow rose, “Why wouldn’t I? I need to know the competency of my constituents,” her arms crossed in a huff, ignoring the stares from the other two, “Though, so far I’ve been unable to get one to stick on that woman,” a slight grumble entered the short woman’s voice, “I haven’t figured out her trick yet, but I will!”

There was a distinct groan to the psychopath’s right, as Ruri had buried her head in her hand, obviously disagreeing with the midget’s course of action.

Kuri, on the other hand, simply went back to his colleague’s work, “We’re getting off topic,” his brush strokes were impeccable as he sign off on another bit of tin eared advice for the short woman, setting it off in a ‘done’ pile for her, “no matter the girl’s lineage, what are we to do with her, hmm?” a brow rose over his thin eyes, quirking the scar that crossed his headband like an ‘X’.

“Was that what we were talking about?” Moe’s voice trailed, as did her dark green eyes under those half-moon spectacles, probably still trying to figure out some way to get the Raikage’s assassin in one of her masterful illusions.

Another groan from the taijutsu master as she moved to prop her chin on her hand, _mildly_ glaring at the inattentive midget, “You’re the one that brought it up…” it was half grumble, half loosed thought as the woman turned to glance at the center of their round table, the other two raising speculative brows, “Although,” a dark tan finger tapped, “She has made interesting progress… while not deciding on a specific style she managed to ‘beat’ Xiao’s form…”

“Hmm,” thin eyes glanced at the tall woman seriously, “was that today?”

Small black eyes blinked as Ruri registered the man’s interest, “Yes,” she leaned back in her chair, crossing her muscular arms giving a half-chuckle, “It was actually why I was late,” a hand waved as the fierce looking woman actually garnered a smile, “The two of them made some bet a while ago, and she’d spent every session focusing on how to beat Xiao’s elusive style, apparently to win a technique…” another chuckle, “And the way she beat her… it was…” oddly the woman’s blonde brows came down in deep thought, running through the last sequence in her mind, “Terrifying… to be honest.”

Two sets of brows went straight up.

Moe and Kuri shared a glanced before the little psychopath leaned over the table and looked Ruri square in the eye. This was something she didn’t do very often as most people found her, especially her noted abilities, quite unnerving, but this was a serious matter, whatever differences her and the taijutsu master had, they had an understanding that neither were to be trifled with. This little girl, whom she spent every other-other day tormenting with her illusions that would give highly trained _jounin_ a run for their money, had _scared_ the large brawny woman. That did not make sense; it just _did **not**_ make sense, “What do you mean _terrifying_?”

Small black eyes blinked, noticing the looks on both her colleagues, but most notably the sheer _seriousness_ Moe was directing at her, “it was a counter move, deflecting an incoming punch with one hand,” she waved her hand to simulate the motion, “and spinning into the guard and ending with the free hand in a point strike,” holding out her index and middle finger on her other hand, Ruri repeated the gesture Yorihi had used on Xiao under her own chin, giving it a second for the other two to absorb before finishing her comment, “I’m sure you both understand how such a move could end…”

“Hmm,” Kuri set his brush down, giving a curt nod, recognizing the move.

There was a low whistle from Moe’s side as she leaned back again in her chair, tilting it, “Damn… imagine if the girl had a kunai in her hand?” she made a jerking motion under her chin, as if stabbing, “or senbon, or… well really anything sharp…”

Black narrowed on the midget, obviously she missed the point, “Try an elemental jutsu, or…” her eyes connected with Kuri’s…

“Hmp,” the chubby man gave a curt nod, tenting his hands in front of him, “Despite her erratic control, which has improved, her reserves are _immense,”_ thin eyes shot a _mild_ glare at their snarky midget, “despite whomever her mother is, _that_ part is obviously her father’s,” those thin eyes went back to his partner, knowing exactly what the woman had been thinking the first time she saw the gesture, “She wouldn’t need a weapon in hand, not when her massive reserves give her the perfect killing tool, literally at her fingertips…” another curt nod, closing his eyes, pushing back various experiences on the battlefield, “Such a move would be _quite_ fatal…”

Ruri just nods leaning back in her chair.

“Hrm…” a snort from their disgruntled midget, “Well nice knowing she’s doing so _stellar_ in your classes,” a deep sigh as the red-almost-black haired woman tosses a few papers on the ground without even looking at them, knowing by intuition what they were likely about and how frivolous responding to them was, “do either of you know how hard it is working genjutsu on someone without sight? Let alone _teaching_ them the damn concepts they _literally_ have no reference for?” the looks she receive were far from sympathetic, “ugh!” she pressed the ball of her hand to her forehead, rubbing vigorously, “just… wrap your heads around this for a second!!” dark green eyes glared at both their passive faces, “I had to resort to my _advanced_ genjutsu from day **_ONE_** because most lower genjutsu are external and deal with sight!!” her hands balled up and were throw with a mild tantrum, “ _seriously!!_ Take away sight and most illusions are forfeit!!”

A smirk rose on the large tattooed woman’s face, wiping away some of her earlier dowerness, “You can’t complain, you’ve obviously learned how to get around this hitch?”

“ _OF COURSE!!_ ” suddenly the little midget looked pumped, “There’s no **_way_** I’m going to fail an assignment, handed down by the Raikage _himself!_ Entrusting us with something as essential as training up the next candidate!!”

“Careful,” a humming baritone chided from the male corner of the table, “Your village pride might be showing…”

“Oh hush you!” those dark-barely-red brows lowered on the man, “I’m former ANBU, I got more ‘village pride’ then the both of you thrown together!”

Small black eyes rolled as Ruri leaned on her arm, “Watch it,” a chiding smirk rose on her lips obscured by her hand, “I _am_ descended by the man that fathered the first Raikage…”

Very maturely, Moe stuck her tongue out at the woman.

Thin eyes tried very hard not to roll, “I believe we’ve gotten very far off topic,” Kuri set down the note he had finished, glancing from one woman to the other, neither acting like the respectable jounin and **_Masters_** they were, but finding little fault in that. The reason the three of them got along so well, were the backbone of the entire Academy as the ‘Triad’ was because they were so ‘informal’ around each other. The ‘Triad’ was a pillar of teaching dating back to the bandits and monks that formed what would become Kumo, take the best hand and weapon fighter, the best monk at nature manipulation, and the best scholar of the mind and you had three insights, three ways of thinking, three ‘Masters’ of their arts that would develop the most well rounded warriors ever known. To be a ‘Master’ they had to almost singularly focus on their field, leaving themselves weak to the other two, but one of the fundamentals of being a ‘Master’ was knowing this flaw and working with it. They relied on each other, held each other up, watched each other’s backs, and fought full out with brutal efficiency, knowing the other two were there. Kuri had no idea how the previous ‘Masters’ handled this delicate balance, it was never spoken about, as each Triad had to figure it out on their own, knowing the students under them could only flourish under their unity. Despite himself, Kuri couldn’t help the _slight_ smirk as one woman growled while the other childishly blew a raspberry at her, “It’s good enough knowing our ‘special’ student is improving as needed, but it’s only been two months, we still have four more until the test.”

Ruri just nodded, “I have a better understanding of her instincts for fighting thanks to Xiao’s sparing with the girl,” a light chuckle from the tattooed woman, “She’s not brutal fist smashing like my cousin, but certainly not ‘dainty’, the girl has a natural flexibility and precise killer instinct…”

“Wonder where she got that from?” Moe snarked flatly.

Small black eyes just narrowed on the midget before ignoring her and continuing, “it’s not delicate, but perhaps with help from Kemui-sensei, we can forge an appropriate hand-to-hand style… then it’s just getting her swordsmanship up.”

An obvious snort from the Genjutsu Master, “you get on my case for commenting then state you’re gonna collaborate with the woman in question?”

Flat black eyes were the midget’s response, “She’s a formidable killer, while the girl might not consciously _want_ to harm others, she obviously has the instinct to go for the kill,” tattooed eyes glanced at her bald partner, “Has she mentioned anything to you?”

The chubby man just gave a curt shake in the negative, “I’ve not asked.”

“Hmm,” Ruri tented her hands in front of her, thinking a moment, “Aside from that, the girl has impeccable knife-skills, I’m sure Kemui-sensei would wish to extend the girl’s repertoire for long distances…”

“Yes, knife-tricks,” Moe was leaning back in her chair again as she shuttered, “I saw that woman pin a bee from across a plain with a wired knife like it was nothing, pretty scary considering the thing was only about this big,” she held out a hand, forefinger and thumb about an inch apart, “and right next to a student’s head who’d not been paying attention,” the obvious grin was totally unnecessary, showing her approval, “think the kid pissed himself, we need more teachers like that! Hehe!

Black eyes stared flatly, “And here earlier you were insulting her for her ‘knife-tricks’…”

“What!” her hands went out, ‘innocent’, “I’m a senbon user myself, **_if_** I have to deign to using anything other than _MADDNESS!_ ” two sets of eyes rolled at her enthusiasm, “small, unnoticeable markings, practically invisible, my kinda weapon!”

A blonde brow rose, “We both know that isn’t your _preferred_ weapon,” there may or may not have been a snicker on the tattooed woman’s lips.

Another undignified snort from the midget, “Uh, duh,” she sat up, holding her left hand out as if holding something and her right pulled back by her eye, “If I’m _really_ going to kill someone it’s going to be from a mile away,” her right hand opened, mimicking the motion of releasing an arrow from a bow, grinning all the while, “But seriously,” both pale hands came down as she looked at the tall woman, “if I have to get ‘up close and personal’ I’m using an untraceable needle,” those dark green eyes became flat, “might want to teach some of your kids that…”

A muscular shoulder rolled, “I think some of them already have the concept, senbon are easier to hide then knives or kunai,” another smirk, “Of course a real **_Master_** of such underhanded tactics might need to teach them how to do it properly…”

Dark-red-almost-black brows rose skeptically as the woman’s eyes narrowed behind half-moon glasses, “Again, I’d call that a compliment if I didn’t know you were insulting me…” a ripple across her shoulders told her someone was staring, turning slightly to the left she caught those flat thin eyes of Kuri, “what?!” both her hands were out exasperated, maybe knocking down some papers.

He just kept staring.

“Ugh,” she gave up, “Fine!” a pale hand pointed at the dark skinned tattooed woman, “But if she gets help from the girl’s _family_ , I’m calling in Taichou,” a wide childish-yet-sinister grin spread on the woman’s lips, “I’m sure she’d _love_ to know her _granddaughter_ is sucking miserably at genjutsu!”

For a moment Kuri’s thin eyes just stayed on the woman, then he abruptly shrugged, sorted the papers in front of him and simply went back to work.

“ _Waaait_ ,” dark green eyes burrowed into the bald man, “Why do I get the feeling I just got tricked…?”

“We’ve already covered this,” the man glanced at her sidelong, “You’re overly paranoid,” more shuffling of said-lazy-woman’s papers, “Though I think it is good to get an external insight…”

Oddly, both women raised brows, glancing at each other than to their male counterpart, Ruri was the one to speak, “Are you going to get ‘external insights’ as well?”

Those sharp thin eyes glanced at his partner, “No,” there _may_ have been a _slight_ smirk, but even Ruri was having a hard time telling, “I’m simply to teach her how to mold her chakra to use for Ninjutsu,” the not-smirk seemed to grow, “I think she already excels in the area of what to do with it…”

\-----

Ironically, somewhere on the other side of the village as Kuri said this a large whipping _tentacle_ of chakra smashed into a platform, digging through it and cutting off several of the restraints. There was a horrifying shutter as the platform started to give, gravity pulling it down into the empty expanse below.

“ _KAMI DAMN YOU **YORIHI!!**_ ” a pink blur bounded to the area right before where the _burning-chakra-tentacle_ hand ripped through the platform, snatching a poor stiff lizard-thing and trying to retreat before the entire structure collapsed. Xiao made a good few feet before jumping for her life as gravity seemed to finally win.

Luckily she was caught by the iron jaws of a badger. Glancing up with red eyes, and holding the utterly terrified lizard, she looked like she could almost cry as the small creature had grabbed the back of her dusky-pink kimono shirt, “Oh, Lior, I love you!!”

“Don’t just thank him!” holding the badger was none other than Oku, grinning that silly grin under his silly hat, as he seemed to be half on-half off the bridge that had been connected to the now fallen platform. Thank whatever was above for their village engineering.

There was a grunt behind the blonde boy, as holding his hand and quite obviously using chakra to brace herself on the remaining bridge was none-other than the smallest person on their mission team, Yorihi. With a sufficient growl the small girl pulled back the boy’s hand, dragging him, his badger, and his would-be partner on to the thing. As they all took a moment to breathe, Yorihi couldn’t help but get out, “At… least… it stopped…”

Red eyes glared at the small girl, really hating she couldn’t see it, as Xiao growled, holding the utterly terrified lizard, “Who destroys a platform to _catch a **LIZARD!!**_ ” holding up the terrified creature.

“I meant to grab it actually,” was Yorihi’s deadpan response.

There was an unholy scream of fury… and the Village Hidden in the Clouds suddenly realized there _truly_ was another Raikage in the making.

\-----

Kuchiyose no Jutsu – lit: ‘Drawing in to speak’ (referencing Possession) common translation: Summoning technique

Minazuki – ‘Flesh-drops’/ ‘All things End’ (differences in Kanji used, Alt: Devourer of Pain)


	7. Flying Sparks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yorihi won the bet, time to collect... and learning something from Reki.

“ _WHY_ …” dark hands rubbed vigorously under dusky-pink bangs, as the medic-aspirant groaned, “why did you break the platform?!” _slightly_ furious red eyes glared down at the blind girl next to her.

Yorihi just shrugged, seemingly nonplussed… which in a way she supposed she was, extraneous environmental damage seemed to be becoming a common occurrence in her life. Bachiko, the devious invisible ghost cat who was trailing behind the girls, just seemed to snicker in that annoying cat way. The blind girl pouted, furrowing her brows. – _Shut up…_ -

Xiao was just grumbling to herself, moving forward and expecting the younger to do so as well. It hadn’t been long after the ‘bridge fiasco’ that they’d turned in their mission, only to be reprimanded for ‘excessive force’ and expected to be part of the repair efforts tomorrow… for free. Yorihi seemed to not care, as she hadn’t accepted any monetary gain for Oku and Xiao’s missions, while the other two were now put into a bit of a negative situation. Their pay was docked for ‘mishaps’ and they wouldn’t be getting anything for tomorrow’s mission. The older academy students were a bit miffed… or well, at least Xiao was, Oku thought the whole thing was funny.

Now with missions done quicker than normal for the day, Xiao was guiding the blind girl to her home on one edge of the village to keep up her end of the bargain… grumbling all the while.

Yorihi followed her classmate in relative silence, seeing little reason to comment, especially since Xiao seemed to keep simmering over the previous events. Instead she let her senses wonder, she’d never been on this side of the village before. The bridges here were smaller, older, leading towards an off shoot plateau. There were holes in and out of the lower part of the plateau with stairs and other small bridges to other plateaus. The stone was older here, more roughly cut into.

“This way,” Xiao reached out and tugged the edge of Yorihi’s shirt, “There’s some stairs…”

The tug was unnecessary; despite the bandanna hidden white eyes could spot the side stairs off an alcove as they stepped off the small bridge. Yet… yet she didn’t mind… without a word or real reaction, the blind girl followed, noticing Xiao had yet to let go of the corner of her shirt as the side stairs led out into the open air. It was at this point she gasped… feeling the sudden up-draft and rush of wind all over. Apparently Xiao’s kinsmen did not understand the necessity of guardrails…

“Yea…” the dark tan girl pulled the younger a bit closer, “You can’t quite see it, but there’s no rails… and a several mile drop…”

Glancing down without moving her head Yorihi could indeed see a seemingly endless drop. Mostly it was open air, but her sight ended with the mid-draft of clouds. If she bothered to focus, she could feel the rumbling of heavy storms, humidity and static sweeping up in the air.  

She simply nodded, allowing the older girl to tug her further up the rail-less stairs. Out of the side of her ‘sight’ she could see Bachiko back in his visible form, curled up on the edge of one of the steps leaning over with wide vibrant blue eyes. She couldn’t help but snicker…

“Yea, yea, laugh at us _visual_ people,” the older girl waved her other hand, not bothering to glance back and completely missing the stumped cat. The two made their way around the outside stairs to a covered doorway, where Xiao knocked several times, “OI!! ANIKI!! I’m coming in!!”

All Yorihi could do was quirk a brow before being quite adamantly yanked into the dimly lit apartment. After a disorienting second of determining where she was, stone floors, cut out rooms with frayed rugs, earthen wear in every corner, and the rather familiar smell of herbs and antiseptics. Xiao quickly let go, trudging off into her corner, leaving Yorihi quite confused in foyer.

Bachiko, again, made himself known, sitting behind her feet, curling his tail around her ankle as need for comfort in this ‘strange territory’ while narrowing his eyes at every nook and cranny. He ended up just snorting with thin vibrant blue eyes, not liking the overall smell of plants and other things.

Yorihi placed one hand on her top right sword, following her own nose towards the familiar scent. The bakeneko’s tail quickly unraveled around her leg and as she stepped forward she could feel his ‘small’ weight nestle familiarly on her shoulders. There was some commotion in the back, the way Xiao had gone, so Yorihi didn’t bother going that way, feeling out as the girl seemed to rummage from one side of a ‘room’ to the next. The carved out internal space was mostly open, no real doors other than the one at the entrance, and honestly the place reminded Yorihi and Bachiko very much of Tougemichi’s ‘home’ in the middle of the caves.

“Yorihi-hime?” a stern deep voice called out from behind the girl causing her to jump a moment, but a quick glance and she smiled.

“Seichi-san!” the blind girl turned with a bright smile, Bachiko snorting at the dog’s subordinate. The _subtle_ red-eyed and haired man had never done anything overtly to agitate the cat, he was merely tiffy as all felines were wont to do in the presence of ‘dog people’ as he decided to classify anyone that worked for the white haired woman.

Seichi’s red eyes just sternly looked down from the blue-black flaming cat narrowly glaring at him to the girl’s grinning pale face. Currently he had been stepping out of their apothecary, wiping miscellaneous medicinal fluids from his hands on a rag when he’d heard his far younger sibling shout her entrance and casually walk by. To be honest, he hadn’t expected her back so soon, but considering the feel throughout the village of something ‘catastrophic’, he was without a doubt the young girl his wry sibling brought home had some hand in it. The girl was certainly her father’s child. Despite learning well under his ‘boss’, as Jimei liked to call the assassin woman, the child in front of him _obviously_ hadn’t learned the value of subtlety yet.

The tall dark tan man gave a bare sigh, nodding slightly, “When my sister informed me of your… _arrangement_ I had been quite surprised, I’m sure _she_ would be pleased with your pursuit and progress…” he nodded at the added emphasis, knowing enough about the girl and the female assassin to know information was of the utmost importance. If Yorihi had not informed his younger sister who she was, it was no place of his to do so either.

The blind girl just lightly smiled at the larger man, feeling the shift on her shoulders as Bachiko went back to his incorporeal form, sensing Xiao’s scrambling return from further within, “Thank you very much,” she gave an honorable bow, respecting her Teacher’s subordinate, “It is nice to visit with you again, Seichi-san.”

“Hmp,” another curt nod from the sandy read-head, “The honor is mine alone…”

“Uhh… okay?” both more _subtle_ persons turned to the source, spotting Xiao with a quirked pink brow and holding what looked like strange folded fabric with sticks, “Nice to see you two’ve met?”

Stern red eyes looked at his sibling’s confused ones while the blind girl between them seemed to only smile uncomfortably. The large man crossed his arms, still looking primarily at his young sister, “a proper hostess provides for the needs of their guest and introduces them to the family.”

A small growl followed Xiao’s red-eyes as they narrowed on her older brother, “and some people recognize that I only came in to grab this,” dark hands lifted the strange fabric object gesturing to it before turning and making her way back towards the door, “Besides, what ‘introduce’? You already seem to know her!” the younger teen grumbled, quickly decreasing the distance between herself and the door.

Seichi didn’t sigh, may have grunted lightly and lower his shoulders by a small degree, but he _did **not**_ sigh, “Her caretakers have been informed of her arrival, next time plan ahead…”

“Yea, whatever!” and out the door she went, seemingly forgetting about her ‘charge’.

Yorihi just fidgeted in the middle of the room, uncertain what action she should take.

With the outer door finally closed, _now_ the tall red haired-and-eyed man sighed, “Please excuse her manner, Yorihi-hime…”

A concerned furrow formed between the girl’s brows over her bandanna as she glanced in the taller man’s direction, “It’s alright Seichi-san,” her focus went towards the door, wondering if she’d have to leave herself or if her ‘host’ would remember why she was even there, “there is nothing to excuse, this was rather… _sudden_ …”

Again that dismissive grunt as the man shook his head, turning back towards the apothecary, “You’d best follow, I doubt she’ll return for some time…”

A frown formed on the pale girl’s lips as the jounin retreated further into the home. She knew Xiao had a brother because the older girl had mentioned it before, several times, but for some reason it never occurred to the dark haired girl that ‘brother’ was none other than Seichi, Kemui-sama’s subordinate. Though, a part of her mind couldn’t help but point out, they did have surprisingly similar personalities, not to mention the eye color, hair tone, and skin tone. Bachiko made his presence ‘known’ again on her shoulder, pointing out the two had a penchant for telling ‘certain’ individuals to ‘shut up’ as well with a hissing giggle.

The blind girl simply snorted, reaching up to scratch under the ghostly feline’s chin as he purred a bit. It wasn’t that she ‘missed’ the obvious signs they were related that was bugging her now, but how… aggravated? Opposing? Whatever the word, the two were barely in the same room for more than a minute and she could feel the tension between them like wading through a river. – _I wonder what all that’s about?_ \- she finally turned back to the door, lowering her hand as Bachiko hopped off, trailing behind her and eventually disappearing. As she pulled the latch on the door, she couldn’t help but wonder about the spat, especially when as far as she knew every time Xiao spoke of her brother it was with such pride.

Upon exiting the carved out home, Yorihi found the dusky-pink haired girl sitting on the open steps not far down, fiddling with the odd fabric thing in her hand. The blind girl simply closed the door behind her, again not sure what to do in this situation.

The older girl just seemed to deem the sound cue enough to stand back on her feet, “Keep your hand on the wall, so you don’t fall,” and quickly went off back into the carved catacombs.

A pout formed on Yorihi’s face, accompanied by a confused brow. – _So much for hospitality…_ \- unconsciously she reached out, trailing her fingertips along the smoothed stone as she quickly followed, Bachiko hopping steps behind her. The dusky-pink haired girl stayed several steps ahead, keeping a brusque pace throughout the carved tunnels inside the plateau. Yorihi’s steps may have been a bit slower; both from her uncertainty in this ‘new’ territory and the constant feel of others around. She knew if she wanted she could easily switch to her chakra sight, or test out seeing ‘through’ the walls to spy anyone, but it was wholly unnecessary.

 From her history lessons, both with Kemui-sama and the Triad, Yorihi had learned Kumo never put _much_ stock in ‘clans’, each person was responsible for themselves, they couldn’t fall back on some ‘family’ thing if they got in trouble unlike some other villages, Konoha especially. So Kumo didn’t _exactly_ have designated ‘clan areas’, people were free to live where they pleased, but even then it was mostly in large apartment-like complexes build into and out-of the mountains Kumo precariously sat upon due to the limited space.

Looking around, following Xiao through the old cut out tunnels constantly moving ‘up’, Yorihi realized this was probably the closest Kumo got to a ‘clan district’. – _Everyone here has red eyes…_ \- the hair color of the few she spotted around a corner or skittering away was anywhere from orange to burgundy, shades of red mostly, and the skin tone was as various as Kumo was itself, but what she had noticed was every single person there had red eyes. The ‘blind’ girl had to clinch her jaw tightly, wanting nothing more than to ask Xiao if these were all her family, but that would require having ‘sight’ and the long trail of trying to hide that fact would probably drive her nuts… not to mention make her ‘lose’ the whole ‘keeping things secret’ thing with her own family.

Thankfully the older academy student had stopped in front of a ladder, “Alright, up here and we’ll finally be where we can start training!” dark fists pumped before the older girl tucked the fabric thing under one arm and made her quick ascension.

All Yorihi could do was frown and shake her head, before quickly ascending the ladder, coming out on top of the plateau.

“Shut that,” the older girl was off a bit near the edge, pointing at the blind girl’s feet… before realizing the whole ‘blind’ part and groaned, “at your feet, there’s a lid to close off that ladder, it’s safer to close it so neither of us fall down.”

‘Facing’ down Yorihi could easily see the thing, again that minute frown and grunt, as she lifted the heavy door and slammed it shut, causing both of them to jump as the sound echoed in the open mountain range. Yorihi could _feel_ the older girl’s red eyes glaring at her; “um…” she tapped one finger to her lips embarrassed, “oops?”

Red-eyes rolled, “suppose I should have said _gently_ but that’s my own fault,” fiddling with some wire Xiao continued her little odd project as the younger girl walked near.

“What are you doing?” even with sight Yorihi was confused by what the dusky-pinkette was doing. From what she could tell Xiao was attaching a wire to the fabric thing…

“Making a lure,” a smirk spread on the dark skinned girl’s face, as she finished the last knot she spread out the fabric and wood framed thing. It was a brightly colored kite, in a shape similar to a bat or moth. Xiao tested the knot once, twice, before she started walking backwards, slowly lifting the kite up, keeping the wings out and gradually the wind caught under the fabric, pulling the brightly colored fabric from the girl’s hands. In no time the kite was flying on its own as Xiao slowly fed it a bit more of the wire until she felt it was high enough, then pulled out a kunai from her belt pack, quickly attached the wire, threw it into the ground and stepped on it, making sure it was secure. With a smirk the girl flicked the taut wire as the kite flew on its own, now grounded, “And for the final touch,” with her foot still on the kunai, Xiao released the wire, running through a long series of seals before ending it with a modified seal, “ _Rua-Tobihi!!_ ” electricity sparked around the girl’s hands before she quickly grabbed the kite string, the electricity flowing both up and down, most going to the ground, while some went up towards the kite itself, making it glow for a moment before lightning seemingly jumped off it into the cloudy sky.

Yorihi rightfully jumped, “W-what w-was that?!”

Xiao finally let go of the kite string, turning back and smiling at the younger girl, “just callin’ Big Mama~”

“B-Big…” immediately the younger girl turned to face the sky, shuddering at the sudden feel of _something_ huge up there, “… Mama?”

All Xiao seemed to do was grin, perfectly fine with whatever was about to happen.

A jolt of lightning jumped from within the cloud cover, hitting the kite and sending it straight into the ground. Xiao was still smirking even if that could have easily hit her, and didn’t stop as a sudden rumbling filled the air. It was almost like the air itself was humming, Yorihi braced, grabbing her swords, expecting something to come out of nowhere and attack. Her chakra reacted by densely coming out, forming a pseudo-spiky dome around the girl.

That, _that_ surprised Xiao, “what the…” hearing the whale-like long drawn out chirps of ‘Big Mama’ Xiao could feel the grand manta-ray descending faster, drawn to the larger concentration of chakra. Red eyes turned to the sky as it began to part, showing the wide grey underbelly of the largest of the flying devilfish, “Oh damnit…” running through her seals quickly, Xiao reinitiated her technique and grabbed the kite again, setting it sparking, “YORIHI!!” she shouted, hoping to get through to the girl, “Lower your chakra!! You’re putting out too much, she’ll suck you dry if you appear too appetizing!!”

Yorihi turned, hearing her elder classmate, before looking up and seeing the **_HUGE_** descending form of what must have been ‘ _Big_ Mama’. The younger girl could only gulp, never having seen something so _MASSIVE_ in her life, and it was her own fear that was triggering her chakra to act up.

“DAMNIT YORIHI!!” Xiao grit her teeth, putting as much as she could into the lure, as natural creatures of storms the flying devilfish had a particular taste for lightning and lightning affinity chakra. The fact that Big Mama was _still_ tempted by Yorihi’s _non_ -lightning chakra with how bright Xiao was making the lure certainly told the older girl just _how much_ the small blind girl had in her. – _Damn, and I thought the teachers were kidding…_ \- Sure, Yorihi always seemed to have some energy, and unconsciously used what would be considered for them large doses of chakra without thinking. If this was the kind of chakra she could pump out when afraid without thinking… - _Hell I do_ NOT _want to know how much she has in total…_ \- with a final growl Xiao tried again, “STOP USING CHAKRA!!”

Yorihi had all of a moment to turn to the older girl, looking both shocked and confused – _What the hell is that?! Where did it come from?!!!_ \- with valid reasons for such, obviously, before what probably appeared very strange from and external view happened…

A blue-black fiery ball of fur, claws, and growly annoyance latched onto the back of Yorihi’s head, completely bypassing her chakra barrier of spiky _doom!_ Reaching around the girl’s head and tapping his paw on her forehead…

In an instant the young blind girl seemed to wilt, her wild chakra barrier of spiky doom dissipating before she collapsed on the ground… the odd finicky feline hopping off her head before she hit the ground and gracefully landing on his feet as his species should.

Xiao had all of a second to blink, not sure what the hell she just saw, before the encompassing echo of ‘Big Mama’s’ whale-like droning song cut through all things, “ _ugh!!_ ” she refocused her efforts on the kite, gripping it with both hands and sending a final overcharged bolt through the damn thing to the hungry stingray, “Yea, yea, I got ya… geez… overstuffed seafood...”

The enormous giant flying chakra sucking stingray just seemed to hum, hovering over the kite as the final bolt came towards it. Yorihi caught her senses back quick enough to get to see the giant floating thing seem to split itself in half, opening an **_ENOURMOUS_** maw that the lightning from Xiao’s lure just went straight for, making a ball of lightning a fraction of the maw’s size before the thing seemed to chomp down…

And that’s when even more weirdness occurred…

As instead of ‘chewing’ or ‘swallowing’, like one would assume when something is consumed, the giant floating manta ray seemed to puff up into an even larger sphere, its amorphous body seemingly stretched to its limits…

“Uh… Xiao?”  Yorihi called quietly, not sure what to make of all the information her senses were telling her…

“Give it a minute…” Xiao said calmly.

The younger girl just gulped.

Four seconds later the thing seemingly exploded.

The younger academy student squeaked at the loud explosion, huddling into a ‘safety’ ball around Bachiko, expecting some kind of fiery damage.

The red-eyed, dusky-pink haired older girl just stood calmly, like this was normal…

The… ‘remains’ of Big Mama seemed to rain down around the academy students… only there was something very weird about it. Yorihi knew what happened to a body when it absorbed too much chakra to the point of literally exploded, she may or may not have vented her fury at the bats in ‘creative’ ways… on several occasions… much to Bachiko’s amusement, so the blind girl knew that the raining gore should just be falling, hopefully into the abyss nearby, not… _floating_ towards them? raising a curious brow as she watched the flakes of Big Mama’s remains float near them, raising her head to look very confused as it seemed the pieces were culminating near Xiao? – _The heck…?-_

This was the odd moment where the bakeneko in her lap pointed out there was no blood… both quirking even higher brows.

“Zishi!!” a particularly large bit of… _matter_ floated near Xiao, the dark skinned girl only holding her hand out as if to catch it. Without realizing it both wispy cat and ‘blind’ girl had their mouths open in somewhat disgust and eyes wide in shock, not sure how to take the red-eyed girl **_reaching out_** to grab a floating piece of that giant Minazuki…

Then there was a strange chirping sound from the floating flesh… and it moved… and Yorihi and Bachiko had all of a moment to shudder as the thing seemed to _flap_ its most outward bits, turn in on itself in an orb before _popping_ out, in the form of a large grey and black manta-ray!

Blinking may have been involved.

“Hehe,” Xiao, apparently totally fine with what in the world just happened, simply reached out and scratched the floating manta-ray that was about her size under what was assumedly its ‘head’. The thing chirped as a response, causing Xiao to open her hand and ‘pet’ it, “How is everything Zishi?” more chirping was the girl’s only response as the thing did several backflips and twirls in the air, apparently making some manner of ‘sense’ to Xiao, “Ah… has it really been that difficult?” more chirps, more odd aerial dancing, a nod or two from the dusky-pinkette as she crossed her arms in serious thought, “That is pretty serious…” dark hands clapped together as red eyes looked at the grey and black floating manta-ray, “Well, I need you guys’ help!” it chirped, danced, and other things as Xiao’s dark tan hand pointed out over to her still staring-unbelieving fellow student, “She needs to learn the Chakra Field, mind helping?”

Yorihi twitched at the sudden attention, still crouched with Bachiko in her arms, both too dumbfounded to understand what just happened…

Zishi seemed to ‘look’ at Yorihi and her cat, blink its bulbous black eyes at her before turning back to Xiao, chirping and doing a backflip… that was a ‘yes’ right?

Xiao just grinned, “Hehe, alright!” the older girl pumped her fists, apparently being around the Minazuki brought out the ‘adorable, child-like’ side of Xiao, before a sinister grin spread on her face and her hand pointed directly at Yorihi, “Have at her guys!!”

Hidden white eyes and vibrant blues popped open wider, as suddenly behind Xiao a **_WAVE_** of those vibrantly colored, various sized, manta-ray and sting-ray looking Minazuki swarmed towards them…

In a moment of fight or flight panic, and flashbacks of _swarming **bats!**_ Yorihi instinctively did the first thing that came to mind… she _tried_ to make a chakra bubble. Try, being the operative word, as like before in her panicked state, the chakra came easily, the shape… not so much. Something akin to a spiky oblong shot out around the girl as she huddled around her cat, not wanting to be hit but the extreme wave of amorphous fleshy flying things.

That’s when she heard laughing, “Not bad, for a first attempt,” the voice sounded like it was coming from above…

Without moving her head Yorihi adjusted her sight, focusing where she heard Xiao’s voice, trying to ignore the swarming vibrant colors, and looking passed them. It was Xiao all right, only she was standing on top of the grey and black Minazuki she’d called Zishi, hands on her hips and grinning down at Yorihi and her predicament. Something about that made the younger girl entirely angry, mixed with her uncomfortable feeling with all these unfamiliar things flying around her, and maybe a dash of her mild hatred towards bats, she got to her feet, seething before yelling, “XIAO MAKE THEM STOP!!” her chakra, in response to her rage, expanded, becoming more orb-like and spikier, several of the Minazuki dropping from the barest touch.

Up in the air red-eyes widened, “Whoa…” she had not expected a response like this. Xiao knew the girl had some quirks with her chakra, it responded to her mood and thoughts more fluidly then she’d ever seen someone do, and thanks to her brother she’d been around a couple jounin, but even they needed seals and concentration to move chakra like this girl seemed to do on instinct. While that was impressive it was also scary, because instinct was hard to ‘control’, so Xiao had no idea if this girl had _excellent_ control or utterly **_TERRIBLE_** control with the way her chakra acted. The older girl frowned, while impressive, the more the girl threw out in chakra the hard it was going to be to calm the swarm of Minazuki down, “I can’t actually control them once they swarm!!”

“WHAT?!” a high-pitched panic-mixed-with-rage voice called out over the din of the swarm, “What do you mean you can’t control them!!” by the looks of it the orb of chakra seemed to be getting slightly smaller the angrier the girl got… even if the ‘spines’ seemed to get bigger…

Red-eyes blinked at the _interesting_ reaction, she leaned down slightly on Zishi, running her finger along one of its wing-like fins and the creature responded. The grey and black creature moved, Xiao leaning in with it as it flew down into the swarm, creating a bubble they floated around before hovering just outside the spiky dome of the younger girl. Xiao was looking through the chakra with a mild frown and hands on her hips, “As impressive as this spiny defense of yours is, this isn’t what you’re here to learn…” her arms moved up and crossed over her chest as she wait long enough for the girl to at least face her, “You’re putting out **_WAY_** too much chakra creating this thing, it’ll cause them to frenzy, you want to put out _just_ enough that they float calmly around you, like this one…” Xiao nudged her foot on Zishi, who was calm and languid under her weight, “The Chakra Field was never originally intended as a technique, but a lure for these guys, enough to keep them interested but not enough to cause them to go out of control,” a smirk rose on the older girl’s face, “This is why I said it’d help with your control as well as give you another means to sense things out!”

Listening to the older academy student, and seeing her effortlessly move about in the swarm, calmed Yorihi more than she realized, made most obvious as the spines of her barrier started to shorten and dull. She knew the concept behind the Chakra Field, she’d don similar with her Chakra Bubble back in the caves, both to protect herself and lure out the bats, only Xiao seemed to only use it as a lure, the protection not needed making the charka not visible. If Yorihi thought about it, in a way the red-eyed girls technique did have a lot more control build in, as it required probably a lot less chakra and more focus. – _How am I going to do that?_ \- her skin, ears, nose and tongue vibrated with the varying senses the strange creatures gave off, it was rather overwhelming, and now with her sight added to the mix, the nauseating cacophony of colors as they spun around her was dizzying, let alone distracting. – _how am I going to do this?_ \- every instinct in her body was saying ‘ _Run!_ ’ as she couldn’t fend them off, even with her larger reserves they’d be drained soon enough if the things _truly_ wanted to eat all of her chakra.

She felt a nudge at her feet, and without moving her head could feel Bachiko’s head rubbing against her ankle. He was trying to calm her down, Yorihi’s only response was to frown at him – _“after what you did?_ ”- the blue-black tabby’s only response was a mild snort as he wrapped his forked tails around her other ankle. In the time between her ‘presentation fight’ and entering the Academy, Bachiko and Yorihi had tested out some things now that they understood there was a physical ‘bond’ between them, one of the things they learned was something of an ‘off switch’ for the other. She could tap him in the center of his forehead, or he hers, pump in some chakra, and they could effectively stun the other for a short period of time in what Yorihi could only describe as a kind of ‘chakra overload’. Never before did she think they’d actually find a use for that.

Now they were in a swarm and he was trying to calm her down, if he even thought about doing that again…

The ghostly-feline just purred and rubbed her leg, in his own way saying he’d never do it again unless absolutely necessary… the Cheshire grin on his face wasn’t helping his cause.

“Oh fine!” the smaller girl called out, sitting down roughly in a huff, both arms and legs crossed. – _I need to concentrate and get this barrier down so they’ll go away… fine! I will!_ \- grumbling the girl began to meditate, slightly, like she had been with Kuri-sensei’s private lessons, only focusing on the outer barrier she’d formed, as she still didn’t feel quite comfortable taking it down, only _lessening_ it so they flying things would go away. Bachiko, with that cat-like grin of his smugly hopped into her lap, taking up his own position and focusing as well, trying to ‘help’ in any way he could.

Xiao, standing on Zishi outside the barrier could only cock a dusky-pink brow. – _Where’d that cat come from?_ \- she remembered while calling down ‘Big Mama’ and Yorihi’s chakra was going crazy something had basically attacked the girl causing her to knock out. – _Was it that cat?_ \- she sat down on Zishi’s back as the Minazuki hummed, watching as the younger girl tried to meditate to calm down her chakra. Xiao found it interesting to watch, as each twitch on the girl’s mostly covered face translated to the barrier, making it smaller or larger in areas as the spines started to lessen. The cat in the girl’s lap perfectly still and if Xiao wasn’t reading the thing wrong, apparently channeling chakra as well, through the girl and helping with her control. In her few short years of living Xiao could safely say she’d never seen anything like that, even she couldn’t transfer chakra with the Minazuki, they just ate it. – _Is this a different kind of creature? Or is her control really that good to synchronize with something like that…_ -

It took about half an hour but Yorihi managed to get the barrier to about half its size and only bumpy instead of spiky, and as Xiao watched the Minazuki slow down and begin to just hum around them felt that was good enough. The older girl stood up on Zishi, “Yorihi, that’s good enough!! You can bring it down now!!”

The younger girl seemed to snap out of her deep meditative state, the cat in her lap opening his vibrant blue eyes and staring at the dusky-pinkette, “What? Why?” the blind girl’s head cocked to the side, she could still distinctly feel the creatures out there, even see them, so why suddenly stopping, “I haven’t done it yet?”

The older girl chuckled, “Well it’s not like I expected you to get it in one sitting!” Xiao brought her hands together and put them through a series of seals before opening them up and creating what looked to be an orb of electrical energy, “You guys did great, now go home!!” she grabbed the orb then drew her arm back and threw the glowing thing with massive force, sending it over the edge of the plateau.

The result was immediate, the swarm of Minazuki chirped vibrantly before chasing after the thing over the edge.

As soon as all the swarm was gone Xiao jumped off Zishi, scratching it under the chin again, “Now go on, keep watch of them and tell them I’m proud of how long they lasted!” again, that chirp and aerial acrobatics before the grey and black Minazuki did a corkscrew in the air and floating over the edge with the rest.

With all the Minazuki gone Yorihi finally dropped her barrier, her senses finally calming down to the point she didn’t feel that nagging ‘threatened’ instinct along her shoulders. The blind girl stood up, facing her senior, “Xiao-chan, what was that?”

The older girl turned back to the blind one with a small grin, “Sorry about that, heh,” absently a dark hand scratched behind the girl’s head, “Even if you wanted to train longer, those ones are just babies, they can’t spend all that long out here…”

Hidden white eyes blinked, “Babies?”

“Hehe,” again that nervous scratching thing as the older girl awkwardly grinned, “Yea, I can only really call down ‘Big Mama’ for now, which as you noticed isn’t _really_ a large Minazuki, but a colony of babies morphed to look big and threatening,” The older girl had an earnest smile as she lowered her hand to her hip, looking the younger girl over, “It’s part of their ‘defense’ growing up, Zishi, the one I was riding,” a dark thumb pointed over the girl’s shoulder towards the side the Minazuki had left, “is like their caretaker, she guides and watches over the young ones, I don’t really control them, she does…” dusky-pink brows rose in the center of the dark skinned girl’s head, “and honestly, she’d be pretty mad at me if I had continued, the little ones can only eat so much, and some of them were getting hurt by your chakra to be honest…”

“Oh…” Yorihi visibly deflated, her shoulders slumping as she hadn’t realized any of that. All the blind girl had saw was a swarm of chakra-eating creatures coming at her, never really thought about them or what they were doing.

A dark hand came down on the younger girl’s shoulder, and without moving her head Yorihi could see the grin spreading on the older girl’s face, “Don’t worry about it, you did great! You can come by tomorrow if you’re free and try again?” without thinking the younger girl have a silent nod, making Xiao just smirk all the more, “Great!” before heading off towards her kite to take it down.

“Um…” the younger girl fiddled with her hands, not really moving as Xiao went about her task, “Should I just come here?” she had no idea if the older girl wanted her to come by her home, though Yorihi wouldn’t mind seeing Seichi-san again if he were there.

“Yea, that’d probably be best,” Xiao absently nodded, pulling the kite down, “Else you might have to deal with my brother…”

Blue-black brows quirked, “I like Seichi-san, I don’t mind.”

Once Xiao had finally grabbed the fabric and wood thing she folded it and pulled the Kunai out of the ground before turning towards the younger girl, and odd, not very happy look on her face, “You sound like you know my brother?”

Again the younger girl’s brow tilted, along with her head, “He’s watched over me a few times with Jimei-san when Kemui-sama was out on a mission…” a pale hand raised to scratch under her chin, “I honestly never would have guessed he had family, he’s so quiet most of the time…”

There was a growl that filled the area, and it had nothing to do with Bachiko, “Of course he wouldn’t, just like he never tells me where he goes or what he does,” the older girl scoffed, obviously agitated as she walked towards the hatch, pausing only when something seemed to cross her mind, causing her to look over her shoulder at the younger girl, “Wait, you said ‘Kemui’ right? As in Kemui-sensei?”

Again, Yorihi’s brow rose, “Yes…?” what was Xiao getting at?

This time the older girl turned fully, red eyes staring directly at the blind girl, “You know Kemui-sensei? The IGCI teacher? Outside of school?”

Hidden white eyes blinked, what was the older girl talking about? “Of course I do, she was my Teacher a long time ago…” a mental growl in the back of her mind, courtesy of a certain cat, told her to not continue that train of thought or else she’d start revealing more than she intended. – _Oops…_ \- she immediately shut her mouth, Bachiko rolling his eyes, before something Xiao said piqued her interest, “Wait, what’s IGCI?”

Red-eyes narrowed skeptically, “Intelligence-Gathering and Counter-Intelligence, it was a new course they introduce about two years ago at the Academy, which Kemui-sensei teaches…”

Blue-black brows moved over the dark blue bandana like the younger girl was blinking, “So wait, what is that?” her Father and Teacher had told her the assassin was teaching at the Academy, just not exactly ‘what’ she was teaching as it wasn’t a course she’d be getting during the ‘crash course’.

“You don’t know?” there was a bristling skepticism in Xiao’s voice, all the more obvious with her furrowed brows, “Its taking information from the common things people say, actions they do and don’t do, all these weird little details that-” mid-sentence the girl stopped, blinking red eyes as her mouth just seemed to slowly open before her red eyes snapped on the younger girl, “You said you knew my brother, knew Kemui-sensei out of class,” now the older girl seemed to _really_ bristle as she took several steps to stand in front of the younger one, “The only person my brother would do **_anything_** for as inane as watching someone else’s kid is…” Xiao’s jaw clinched as her dark hand reached out and grabbed the front of Yorihi’s shirt, “She’s **_that_** woman isn’t she?!”

Effortlessly Yorihi grabbed Xiao’s hand, tapping the base of her palm causing it to reflexively open and removed it from her person as her ink-blue brows lowered over her bandanna, “If you mean Seichi-san is Kemui-sama’s subordinate, then yes,” Bachiko was growling lowly on her shoulder, not at the older Academy student but his master, questioning why she was bothering to tell this girl anything. – _She deserves to know…_ \- was her only response to him, letting go of Xiao’s hand as the older girl looked down at her with this mixture of shock, rage, and stricken, seemingly not knowing how to accept this information. - _… and I think I know why Kemui-sama and Otou-sama didn’t have me take that course…_ \- Tougemichi had taught her the value of information, where so much as saying your own name could get several people killed. Yorihi finally understood looking at the changing emotions on her classmate’s face just how small bits of information could affect a person, and why her Father and family had made such odd stipulations on what she told people her own age. – _It’s all the same thing…_ \- they were having her learn the same lesson outside the curriculum, because there was a lot she had that others shouldn’t know about.

Xiao put her hand to her head, seemingly trying to process this information, “That woman… she’s the one my brother works for, but if she’s…” those red eyes looked at the younger girl skeptically before Yorihi could see her black pupils widen as the intelligent girl’s mind made the right connections, “if she taught you then you’re…”

“Don’t say it!” standing tall and imposing like her Father, even if still shorter than the older girl, with brows low like she was glaring Yorihi said firmly, “If you don’t say it then you don’t know it, and the safer you will be…” Yorihi was the Raikage’s daughter, he was an important political figure, before she had left to train with Tougemichi she had seen assassins attempt to take her own life and her Father’s, stopped only by Kemui’s blade. The old Assassin had taught her why, and it was only right now she was fully understanding the meaning behind her Teacher’s ‘training’. Anyone that directly knew her connection to the Raikage could be threatened, the Company Commanders could know because they were strong enough to defend themselves, same with others like Seichi and Jimei, but the Academy students… they would never see the blades before they were struck.

 The dusky-pinkette physically jumped, having never heard such force or command in the smaller girl’s voice, it made her suddenly seem a hundred times bigger unlike the aloof mysterious little girl that ignored most everyone’s presence. A lot of things suddenly made sense, in more ways than Xiao would have probably ever realized or ever wanted to admit. Worst of all, the red-eyed girl realized it was because of that damn class that damn woman taught that she was even able to put the pieces together.

_“The smallest piece of information, in the right context, can change the entire world…_ ”

it had been the primary lesson in the IGCI class, not only just _how much_ people carelessly tell everyone around them, but also how all those little pieces could fit together to spell out disastrous consequences in the right hands. The little girl in front of her never introduced herself, never hug around long enough for anyone to truly get to know her, and didn’t spend time with idle chatter. Now, Xiao realized that was all because she was taught long ago the value of such information, that her silence was in a way protecting them, because if outside forces knew the… the _Raikage’s daughter_ was in their class, they’d likely be attacked, and children like them were terrible at keeping secrets!!

- _So why did she tell me…_?-red-eyes refocused on the serious blind girl, “Then why did you tell me…” unconsciously her jaw clinched, “about **_her_** and the connection with my brother?”

A small frown formed on the pale girl’s face, “You deserve to know,” her head tilted to the side a bit, partly ashamed because she hadn’t really meant to tell her anything as she absentmindedly gripped one of her top swords, “at least about your brother… he’s a good guy, you shouldn’t be so… dismissive of him…”

The older girl’s jaw clinched tighter, “Don’t act like you know anything!” dark hands clinched into fists as the normally so vibrant girl shook with barely contained emotions, “it’s because of **_that woman_** he’s never home!! He’s never around!! And I’m always on my own to take care of myself!!”

A thin line formed of Yorihi’s lips, her hand tightening on her sword hilt. What could she say to that? Before today she hadn’t even known Seichi had family, let alone a sister, nor that she was the girl Yorihi had spent the last month sparing with…

Then all she could think about was her time in the caves, away from those most important to her…

It hurt, even thinking about Tougemichi and how she’d probably never see the old man again hurt, and all the experiences she’d had with the man…

Without thinking her mouth moved on its own, “Its hurts,” her voice was soft as unconsciously her hand raised to clinch around her heart, “not getting to be around those you care about,” her head raised and she looked Xiao directly in the eyes, even if the girl couldn’t see hers because of the bandana she couldn’t help the gesture, “knowing they could be hurt, or in danger, or worse…” her hand lowered, both sitting on her swords, those that the old man forged as her ‘payment’, something she’ll carry with her and never forget him by, things that will make her strong enough to care about those around her, “but don’t think there isn’t a reason for it!” suddenly Yorihi’s voice was firm, mimicking her Father’s booming voice, “You and I are training to defend this village, just like he does, just Kemui-sama does, just like _everyone_ here does…” her hands became bone white on the handles as she lowered her chin to her chest nearly gritting her teeth, “Don’t be so selfish, it hurts, but that’s not a reason to lash out and blame others who aren’t even aware of how you feel!”

Silence filled the void between the girls after Yorihi’s declaration.

Red eyes were wide, speechless as the older girl was unable to think. It was one thing, learning all this ‘truth’, another snapping at the younger girl without realizing it only to have it all thrown back at her. Yorihi was always quiet, strong in a fight but seemingly closed off or even ‘ _weak_ ’ in a verbal sense… now she knew that assumption was utterly wrong. When the girl spoke it held meaning, it was strong and hard, and it was with that short exchange Xiao felt confirmed in her assumptions. – _This girl **is** the Raikage’s daughter…_ \- and even more than that the girl truly did have a deeper concept of hiding things than any of the other Academy students, they’d even had a class taught by the girl’s ‘teacher’, her brother’s commander… and she’d never even suspected.

With a deep sigh the older girl deflated, running a dark hand through her bands and turning to the side walking some distance before sitting down by the edge, just to get a moment to think.

Following the older girl’s motions, Yorihi visibly lessened her hostility, not fully relaxed as she was still convinced Xiao might pull something and it was in her nature to simply be ‘aware’ of things, no matter how comfortable she’d come to be around the older girl. Bachiko on her shoulder was also restless, his vibrant blue eyes narrowed on the older girl, suspicious of her next action, his body lying on his master’s shoulders but in a way that his arms and legs were poised to spring into action if necessary.

There was a disgruntled sigh that sounded almost like a groan, “I’m not going to jump or anything,” a dark hand waved back as Xiao seemed to have one leg up resting her chin on her arm, “I just… need a moment to think…”

Shoulders lowering slightly, Yorihi pouts, removing one hand from her swords as she steps closer to the girl, looking her over with her eyes and senses without needing to move her head. Bachiko still ready to pounce…

Xiao runs her hand through her dusky pink bangs and does another sighing groan, “Damnit, I really liked that class!!” she halfway shouts, slamming her fist knuckles-first into the ground next to her, “it was always interesting, some new puzzle, some new scenario to figure out…” her hand on her head lowered, supported her chin haphazardly as she visibly pouted, “None of us ever did figure out what Kemui-sensei’s job was…”

A blue-black brow rose as Yorihi hesitantly took a stiff seat next to the older girl, unsure about the volatile emotions of ‘ _children_ ’. Part of her wanted to ask what the girl meant, but she’d learned long ago sometimes silence and patience answered all questions.

Red eyes gave the girl a side glance, noticing she was sitting next to her if still somewhat rigidly and at a decent distance. Xiao faced forward again, gathering her thoughts, “in IGCI class, there was a running… gag I suppose? Hidden assignment?” a miffed shrug, “On the first day Kemui-sensei introduced herself she was wearing a jounin flak vest with no hitae-ate, didn’t even introduce herself as a jounin, just our ‘instructor’ so everyone just assumed she was a jounin, heh,” the older girl shook her head at the memory, “at the end she told us she wasn’t a jounin, not even a ninja, as our ‘assumptions’ were wrong. We assumed she was a jounin by the vest, but without the hitae-ate we couldn’t know she was a shinobi, right?” a light tone entered Xiao’s voice as she held up on hand making a point, “So we learned day one, all our assumptions were wrong, and such things could have disastrous effects…” red eyes turned to the younger girl, something perhaps hurt in them, “So we all made this bet to try and find out her real rank and standing and what not, Oku and I tried tailing her once, it was impossible, she’d known we were there the whole time…”her dark hand went through her bangs again, “The others had similar results of failure, in the end none of us learning anything about the woman…”

Without thinking Yorihi responded in a way she would blame solely on that rough old man she’d spent four years trying to figure out, “Did you ever try just asking?”

Red eyes turned to the younger girl wide and surprised to not only hear her voice but Xiao wasn’t sure if that was meant as a joke or not…

Yorihi merely tilted her head, crossing her arms with a comical pout on her face and furrowing of her brows, “Kemui-sama taught me long ago sometimes the most obvious ‘answer’ is the simplest,” that bandana covered face turned to face the older girl, “I’m sure if you’d simply asked one of the adults, even your brother, they may have just told you…”

Xiao’s mouth opened as if to make a response… only to close a moment later as nothing came out, the girl’s jaw tightening as her dumbfounded looked changed to a more angry one, “Who just flat out _asks_ for information like that?”

All the younger girl did was shrug, “It doesn’t hurt to try, worst case you’re told ‘no’, best you get an answer that may be true…”

Again the older girl bristled.

A frown spread on Yorihi’s pale face as she tightened her crossed arms, looking more serious, “Did you ever just _ask_ your brother who was in charge of him? What he did?”

A grunt as the dusky-pinkette pulled up both knees, wrapping her arms around them and setting her head on them with a grunt, “You’re such an ass…”

“I’m trying to be sincere,” the blind girl gave a snort, similar to a certain cat that decided to jump off her shoulder and sit in middle of her lap.

Out of the corner of her eyes Xiao watched the cat’s movement, keeping her head behind her arms to hide the pout, “So what’s the story with that cat…” there was a pause before, in her moodiness, Xiao remembered the nickname Moe-sensei used for the girl that suddenly made a whole lot of sense, “ _Princess…_ ”

Yorihi visibly ruffled, much to Xiao’s perverse amusement, as a pale hand absentmindedly pet the wispy cat, “He’s my…” her head tilted to face him, trying to think of an appropriate term that would suffice for the strange bond the two had. Only one word seemed to come to mind, “… partner?”

A dusky-pink brow rose, “Kind of like Lior and Oku?”

A modest shrug from the younger girl, “I guess…”

That dusky-pink brow stayed up as red eyes turned to look at the two. The cat was weird, that was for sure, especially since he seemed to come out of nowhere, latching onto Yorihi’s head and doing something that seemed to calm her down, then seemingly helping her with her control. – _A strange cat…_ \- those red eyes traveled up to the blind girl petting him - _… for an even stranger girl_ \- “Heh,” a grin may or may not have started to pick at the edge of Xiao’s lips, “You’re weird…”

“You don’t even know the half of it…” was Yorihi’s blunt response as she continued petting her cat.

\------

Reki sat back in her rolly-chair, arms crossed, head down in thought as a lone cigarette burned slowly in her mouth. Kokuei was somewhat freaked out as he’d never seen his boss sit so still for so long, if it weren’t for the occasional exhales of toxic smoke from her nose he’d have thought she died. No, the desk clerk had just had an ‘interesting’ conversation with a previous ‘subordinate’ about her granddaughter and unlike most things in her interesting days this, she felt, required her full attention.

So Reki was sitting still, barely smoking, eyes closed, arms crossed, and thinking.

It was as she came to a decision, opening her eyes, that she heard the doors to the Raikage’s building slide open, and the target of her thoughts haphazardly walked in. The small girl, nearing eleven from what the assassin told the desk clerk, hobbled in, her outfit a bit scuffed up, smudges of red dirt on her face, and if Reki didn’t know any better she smelled of ozone, like she’d stood too close to a lightning strike. For the past week the girl had been running off after class to train with a classmate of hers, or so the assassin had told her, something about learning a technique won in a bet. From what the desk clerk could tell the girl’s opponent was tough, as Yorihi had come in more than once scuffed up from head to toe, and always with the smell of lightning around her. Unconsciously a smirk rose on the older woman’s face – _reckless like her mother, catching lightning like her father…_ \- quickly Reki stood, knocking her rolly-chair behind her, as she walked around the front desk, nudging her shoulder back to Kokuei, “Smoke break, watch the desk…”

The dark haired should-be-jounin jumped, having gotten used to the woman being so still and silent, as creepy as that was, only for her to bark again at him and apparently leaving, “Wha…” the younger assistant pouted, “Taichou!! You’ve been smoking this whole time!!”

Reki just gave him an ‘I don’t care’ shrug, waving her hand lazily, “And I need the fresh air…”

Blue eyes just glared at the uncaring older woman while Kokuei went and shuffled papers around in a huff, “Don’t take too long…” he did _not_ want to have to deal with another bitching out by the admin department or heaven forbid the Raikage himself for that woman being gone… again!

Without a care Reki ignored her assistant’s bitching, and walked right up to Yorihi, “You’re coming with me,” without missing a beat the woman’s left hand grabbed the back of the blind girl’s shirt, pulling her up and throwing the girl over her shoulder as she walked out the way the girl had come in a somewhat thuggish style.

Yorihi had only the second to register the grab, squeak, “EEP!” and in a vain attempt to remain ‘decent’ grab the bottom of her shirt and hopefully pull it down before her grandmother chocked her with it… or worse, tore it off. – _Mei-chan will not be happy if I ruin this…_ \- squirming a bit as the older woman kept walking undisturbed, and getting increasingly uncomfortable with this manner of ‘being carried’, Yorihi finally opened her mouth, “Baba!! Put me down!!”

In an instant the small girl was tossed unceremoniously onto the bridge they’d been crossing, with enough effortless force to nearly throw her off. Scrambling to get her bearings and latch onto the solid surface, Yorihi managed to catch herself, maybe or maybe not with the help of her bakeneko, as he’d become corporeal a moment just to bite her shirt and pulled her back onto the bridge as to not lose balance. After correcting herself, and fixing her garment, as _everyone_ today seemed to want to utterly ruin it! The blind girl ‘glared’ at the older woman, standing as tall as her small frame could, which only really came up to about Reki’s stomach, and lower her brows threateningly as her eyes were covered by the bandana.

All Reki did was keep walking, conveniently reaching out to turn the small girl around as she passed.

Yorihi blinked for a second slightly confused, before trailing after her Grandmother, “Baba, what’s going on?” glancing around with her hidden eyes she could tell they were headed towards the training grounds, not the ones the Academy used, but the **_real_** ones higher level shinobi, such as her Grandmother, would use… not that she’d ever really thought about her Grandmother ‘training’ let alone actually doing anything shinobi-esque. – _isn’t she just a desk clerk?_ \- a curious brow rose on the young girl as her gaze shifted up the older woman without moving her head. Reki had the jounin vest, even if it was an older style used by the previous Raikage, her ‘grandfather’ Yorihi supposed, not that she really thought about it much, and her Hitae-ate with its darkened and old band hung effortlessly around the taller woman’s neck. She was a shinobi, no doubt… it was just hard to believe she _did_ anything shinobi-like…

There was a snort in the back of the young girl’s mind as that familiar weight made itself known on her shoulders, the ghost-cat reminding her about how the ‘Company Commanders’ acted around her Grandmother, especially the masked ones; the ANBU ones, and how everyone called her ‘Taichou’ all the time. Her grandmother was respected, and if she didn’t _act_ like she should be respected, there had to be another reason.

Momentarily the young girl remembered the words of Company H’s Commander, ‘Raiga’ as Reki called him, about ‘Company 1’ and how Uzushio mentioned the ‘bloodiest Company in Kumo History’ while staring right at her Grandmother. The brow on the young girl’s face rose more as she thought about how others treated her Grandmother and what she’d seen of the woman; always laid back, smoking, relatively calm… - _Is Reki-baba really someone worthy of such respect, fear, and spite?_ -

“Well brat,” Reki’s jovial if still lazy sounding voice cut through the young girl’s thoughts, apparently responding to her earlier question, “Earlier I had an… _interesting_ talk with one of my former subordinates…” the woman’s thin black eyes glanced down at the girl from behind her wireframe glasses, “Seems, she tells me, you’re not doing very well in one of the core areas…”

Yorihi shuddered under the gaze, more because she could tell exactly who had spoken with her Grandmother. – _I’m fine in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu… so that only leaves…_ \- with a grunt the girl raised her shoulders to her ears defensively, “Moe-sensei.”

A smirk rose on the older woman’s face at the statement, girl was smart enough at least to recognize what she’d been talking about. Without thinking Reki reached out and ruffled the girl’s hair, “In one kid,” the older jounin chuckled as the girl seemingly growled, not knowing she hadn’t been the first person that day to mess with Yorihi’s hair. Mercifully the older woman withdrew her hand, letting the girl pout as she crossed her arms and looked down at the girl critically, “So, mind tellin’ your Baba what’s up with you and genjutsu?”

Yorihi’s hands dropped from  fiddling with her hair, deflating quite obviously as a _small_ scowl passed her lips, looking awfully a lot like a pout, “I don’t get it…”

A thin black brow only seemed to rise on the older woman’s face, along with the edge of her smirk, “That it huh?”

Confused blue-black brows cocked as the girl turned to face the older woman.

Now Reki really was smirking as she uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her bare hips, “Kid, no one really _gets_ genjutsu, only crazy brats like that Moe do and others that excel at the thing,” she waved her hand around flippantly as the girl turned to her, still looking rather confused, “Look, the only point of the genjutsu course in the academy is to test out one’s _resistance_ to it, not actually master it or anything,” without thinking the older woman reached out and poked the girl on the forehead right between her rough bangs, “Trust me, no one’s _good_ at genjutsu but weirdos like that little freak…”

Somewhere off in the distance there may or may not have been a loud sneeze, not that anyone was paying attention.

“… all you gotta worry about is breaking them,” Reki re-crossed her arms, looking down at the young girl as Yorihi vigorously rubbed the spot she’d been poked with a pout on her face, “Worse comes to worse kid, you just gotta make sure you aren’t revealing anything you shouldn’t be, understand?”

Still rubbing her head, and pouting, the younger girl nodded, “I… I think so…”

Those thin black eyes narrowed, “You do or you don’t,” the older woman barked, “Genjutsu is one of those skills that works in absolutes, if you absolutely, positively, without a single doubt, **_know_** you won’t be affected by them, you can break them, and won’t reveal anything, then you won’t!” the older woman had probably the most serious look on her face Yorihi had ever seen, “Now, **_do you understand?_** ”

Without thinking the girl nodded, “Yes, Baba.”

That lazy smirk perked back on the older woman’s face, “Good, then we can start…” with that Reki turned and continued on her path to the specific training ground she’d been heading to.

It took Yorihi a moment to blink; snapping herself out of the trance her Grandmother had put her in, before shaking it all off and running after the older woman. – _What had that all been?_ \- Yorihi watched her Grandmother as they walked, she’d never seen the woman so serious, so… _not_ her Grandmother. For a moment, Reki-Baba actually looked like a Commander.

Bachiko, on her shoulder, could only nod in stunned agreement… he had seen the old woman beaten and bloody by the Nibi, with those eyes that made his wispy fur crawl, but he’d never seen her actually appear so threatening… it was certainly something new.

It took several more minutes of long silence for them to finally appear where Reki had been planning to take the girl. Glancing around seriously the older jounin surveyed the area, feeling no one nearby for some distance. With a quick nod Reki closed her eyes, bringing up one hand in a half seal and releasing a burst of chakra.

Yorihi jumped, squeaking at the feel of the chakra pulse from her Grandmother. – _H-holy… w-wow!_ \- she’d worked with Kuri on such pulses, his always much lower, and she remembered feeling Omoi and Karui’s chakra as they fought, along with Xiao’s and all the academy students. Yorihi knew her chakra dwarfed theirs easily, but the mere _feel_ of her Grandmother’s made her start to think the older woman’s reserves utterly dwarfed hers…

“There, nothing in the area, it’s safe,” as Reki turned back to the girl she could see her already surprised form stiffen as she raised her hand to take off her glasses, “Take off that bandana, I’ll need direct contact for this…”

Yorihi merely shuddered under her Grandmother’s gaze, it was those weird red and black eyes again… only this time they looked different, far different and that creepy feel from the last time she’d seen them had increased times fold. Bachiko on her shoulder was flexing his claws into her shoulder, so she knew this was real as she could feel the pain, but his fur was on end and his growling was louder than before. He did not like those eyes, and that was all the reason Yorihi needed to not like them either, “B-Baba…” unconsciously the young frightened girl gripped the handles of her top two swords.

There was a long sigh before Reki pulled out her cigarette and dropped it on the ground, stamping it out under her straw sandal, “Look, kid, you trust me, right?”

Without thinking the young girl immediately nodded.

A minute smirk rose on the older woman’s face, “Good,” she crouched to the girl’s level, trying to appear less threatening but knew her eyes were scary, “So trust me, this will only take a moment…”

Yorihi hesitated, listening to Bachiko growl, but while the ghostly feline didn’t _like_ those eyes, he wasn’t telling her to distrust the older woman she called ‘Grandmother’. Slowly she raised her hand to the bandana, staring at the woman’s strange red and black eyes, “O-Otou-sama and Kemui-sama told me to never take this off outside my room…” it was a weak defense and she knew it.

The smirk on Reki’s face grew, amused, “I know they did kid, but this is important,” her hand reached up, touching the fabric, “my eyes, like yours, are never supposed to be seen, so trust me for this instance, as this is a safe place…” a dark shade came to the woman’s eyes as her brows lowered slightly, “Believe me… if anyone interrupted us, no matter who, they’d be dead before you could see them…”

“I don’t _see_ anything Baba,” Yorihi said defiantly as she pulled the bandana down herself, looking at the woman with her revealed still white eyes and the purple scars underneath…

Reki just earnestly smirked, pulling her hand back, taking in the photographic detail her eyes gave her of the girl’s revealed face; scars, white eyes and all, “I know kid…” a true smile came to the woman’s face, as her red and black eyes started to spin, “Heh, I know…”

The next instance it felt like something grabbed hold of Yorihi’s mind and pulled it under water…

She gasped when she ‘awoke’ and realized she was strapped into a wooden chair, metal bindings around her legs and arms, in a cold cell with various bladed tools hanging on it.

“Good, you made it,” a familiar voice called out from behind her, “I honestly didn’t know if this would work on a Byakuugan,” Reki walked out from the girl’s periphery- wait, since when did she have a ‘periphery’ she could _ALWAYS_ see everything around her?- with her arms crossed and those strange red and black eyes looking down on the girl, straight into her eyes, “especially since R &D says yours has… ‘changed’ so much compared to a normal one…”

“Baba?” looking around Yorihi felt trapped, scared, but most of all anger… something wasn’t right with this place, her eyes were acting as if they were ‘off’ and she couldn’t feel Bachiko, “What’s going on?!”

The older woman smirked, “Well, I’ll be damned,” she poked the girl in the forehead, with enough force to slam her head back into the chair hitting it, “You get feisty when threatened and alone, most people cower when faced with something like this you know?”

The girl’s frown just increased, not sure what to make of this place or the woman in front of her…

The red and black eyes woman sighed, deflating obviously, “Look kid, it’s me,” she pointed to herself with a tan hand before pointing at the bound girl, “You’re you, and this…” that hand waved around in a wide arc, referencing the ‘cell’ around them, “Is the world I can create with my eyes…”

“What?” at that Yorihi deflated some, actually looking around, the placed smelled of stale blood, citrus, and sterilizing alcohol, she could _feel_ quite accurately the bonds around her but if she tried feeling past the door it was as if things fuzzed out, so looking and… everything _looked_ right, and creepy, in front of her, but for some reason she got the feeling if she turned around she would find nothing behind her… like beyond the door.

“Heh, that’s right, you’ve got pretty heightened senses from whatever that brat’s master put you through,” Reki was leaning against the stone wall smirking as the girl looked and felt around, “As you can probably tell, I’m not that ‘creative’ when it comes to genjutsu…” looking around herself, Reki knew this genjutsu was pretty high level, she had absolute control of everything in this ‘world’, she could ‘make’ anything and everything, but at the same time it was ‘limited’ by her own thoughts and details, “I’ve only ever really used this world to torture secrets out of people, so excuse me if it’s a bit limited to that facet…” there was a blasé fair shrug from the older woman.

“Torture?” Yorihi’s head turned to face the woman, her revealed white eyes seemingly facing her directly, even if they didn’t seem that way.

A long sigh from the older jounin, “That’s right kid, torture,” Reki kicked off the wall, stepping towards the girl with crossed arms, “In this village, I’m one of the best torture experts we’ve got,” out of nowhere the black haired woman pulled out a wicked looking jagged blade, twirling it in front of the small girl, “Like you, I pretty much suck as all hell with genjutsu,” the utterly confused look on the bound girl’s face made Reki laugh, as she continued to play with the blade, “I know what you’re thinking; ‘ _really Baba? But we’re obviously in a genjutsu you made?’_ that about right?”

Yorihi only gulped in response.

The blade suddenly came to Yorihi’s throat, making her jump in her restraints, “Damn, I think I know what Moe was talking about,” the edge of the blade touched the pale girl’s throat making her instinctively stiffen, “You’re way too obvious…”

Moe had said something similar, time and time again, this caused blue-black brows to lower confused as for a moment Yorihi ignored the threatening blade to glare at her Grandmother, “What do you mean?”

A tiny smirk picked at the older woman’s lips, “You’re too obvious, I can read everything you’re thinking or plan on doing on your face…” the blade was removed as Reki leaned in closer with her red and black eyes, “I don’t even _need_ to do anything serious to you, to could get whatever information I want…”

The young girl just growled, frowning quite obviously.

Reki just sighed, standing straight again, “Well, to answer your previous ‘question’,” she waved her hand, the blade disappearing, “its these eyes, I can’t make a genjutsu of this complexity on my own, even at my age I’m barely proficient with the bushin… not like I ever use the damn thing, pfft…”

Yorihi just raised a brow.

Red and black eyes rolled, “Look kid, like you, and your father, I’m proficient at ninjutsu,” tan arms were held out wide as if to exaggerate her point, “I have **_massive_** reserves, boosted by some pretty sweet seals mind you,” back to crossing her arms, “but that’s not the point,” she raised one hand making a point, “even I got through the academy with decent grades in Genjutsu… why?” she paused as if waiting for a response.

Yorihi just stared, even more confused.

“Because…” the older woman growled, “it’s not _proficiency_ in genjutsu they’re looking for, its resistance,” there was a huff as the older woman recrossed her arms, “they want to know that if you get caught in a genjutsu, a _serious_ one you’re not gonna spill anything you shouldn’t, or that if you get in one you know how to _get out_ of one… so,” she kicked off the wall, looking down at the bound girl, “my take is you’re over thinking things, too worried about not being ‘caught’ with those eyes of yours that you aren’t just getting out… or you have no idea how to keep information…” a snort, “which obviously you do, just Moe doesn’t know that as she _shouldn’t_ right?”

The girl merely nodded sheepishly.

“Good,” the older woman turned to the wall, looking over the rows of blades, “Now… I hate to do this kid, I really do,” a tan hand reached out to grab a blade off the wall, another wicked looking one with a hook on one end and serrated edge, “But, while I have you, I might as well teach you the fundamentals of torture…”

“B-Ba-Baba!” those white eyes seemed to actually widen, as the girl tried pushing back in the chair.

In an instant there was a swipe, and suddenly Yorihi felt wide open cuts on her fingers, looking and she could see blood flowing as all of her knuckles on her left hand had been slit open by the rough blade.

She was honestly too stunned to say anything, trying to come to terms with the fact her _Grandmother_ had just done that…

“Relax, this isn’t real,” another swipe from the older woman as the girl’s other hand now sported similar wounds.

Instead of screaming at the pain, Yorihi clinched her jaw, white eyes turning to the woman asking the obvious question.

“Why am I doing this?” suddenly another knife warped into the older woman’s hand, which she quickly slammed point down into the girl’s right forearm, breaking her arm guard and setting right between the radius and ulna.

This time the girl did scream.

Disturbingly, Reki’s face was passive as she watched the girl squirm; trying to remove her arm but being bound could only futilely struggle. In an instant, Reki’s hand grabbed Yorihi’s forehead and slammed her head into the back of the chair, “Are you finished?”

Dazed, the girl could only whimper and glance at the woman, confused by what was going on…

Those passive red and black eyes just stared at the girl, “what are you feeling right now?”

The girl sucked on her teeth, feeling a whole lot of pain, from her fingers, her right arm…

Another blade came out of nowhere and slammed into her right shoulder, pinning her more securely to the chair.

“AACKHHH!!” the girl shuddered with the blow, eyes widening more.

Another slam to the head and she was dazed again.

A sigh from the torturer, “You really do fail at this…”

Despite the pain, the girl raised her head enough to glare at the woman she had trusted, clinching her teeth…

Another blade went into her left forearm.

This time she only growled, seething from the pain but pushing it back…

A smirk rose on the torture expert’s face, “Good,” a tan hand reached out and pulled the blade out of the left arm, “you’re going to have to get better to survive all this…”

“B-Ba-ba…” Yorihi’s voice was a mix of strained pain and anger as she tried looking up at the woman.

Those passive red and black eyes were on her, “Yea kid?”

“W-why?” she winced under the pain but tried pushing it back as much as possible.

Those eyes just stared blankly.

This time the blade went into her upper left leg.

Yorihi tried not to flinch, biting down her scream as she tried to keep her furious white eyes on the woman she had trusted enough to show her eyes.

Reki continued to look at her passively, “Torture, Yorihi,” the seriousness of the woman’s voice struck somewhere in the girl’s mind, passed all the pain, “Is very much like Genjutsu…” effortlessly she pulled out the blade in the girl’s shoulder, watching as she fell slightly, “if you can survive what I’m going to put you through, you can resist anything…”

The girl’s entire body shuddered, rage mixed with many things but mostly pain, “W-why are you doing this…?”

Two blade appeared in the woman’s hands as she held them out wide… only to come in swiftly and shoved them into her shoulders, pinning her upper arms to her chest, nicking internal organs but not enough to ‘kill’…

This time the girl did scream again… and again got shoved in the head and dazed…

“Do you know who you are?” the woman’s voice was cold as she looked down at the girl writhing in pain, “who you **_really_** are?”

Even through the pain and grit teeth the girl said only one thing, “T-Tenkyuu… Y-Yo-Yorihi…”

Another knife, another place that hurt, another grit and more pain…

“Did you know Satsuki has no idea who you **_really_** are?” the older woman growled, cutting more as the girl winced, “your precious father never told her… as there are no _official_ records…”

Yorihi winced at the pain, gritting her teeth and trying to ignore it as her Grandmother spoke, “W-what… a-are you… ARGHH!!” another knife…

“Don’t mistake me for an idiot,” one knife was removed as the older woman leaned forward, placing it under the girl’s precious eyes, “ ** _ALL_** missions in Kumo go through me, I knew Gashinra’s mission before it was stricken from the records and made to never have existed…” there wasn’t much ‘pain’ as the knife cut into the girl’s cheek under her left eye, where all the scars were and dug into her eye socket, “All this farce… for something so ridiculous…” the knife was lowered, stabbed into the girl’s arm as she barely winced this time, too focused as a tan hand reached out and pulled out her left eye…

The sensation was bizarre, both seeing it and seeing through the eye as it was removed, her eye still active, the network of enhanced chakra tubes and capillaries stretching and pulling to hold the organ in its rightful place.

Reki effortlessly ripped it out, severing all connections as she seemingly glared at the organ, “So long a farce just for the fucking Byakuugan…” perhaps sadistically the woman turned the bloody eye around and showed it to her.

Yorihi could only stare, her field of vision barely hampered by the removal of one eye… the pain wiped from her mind as she could barely understand what just happened…

Then Reki’s hand slapped her across the face…

Instinctively Yorihi blinked from the impact, only to open her eyes and growl at the older woman…

Then she noticed several things. The blood was gone, Reki wasn’t holding her eye, and a cursory glance told her that while still ‘bound’ all of her wounds were gone. Confused she looked back at the older woman.

“It’s not real Yorihi,” the older woman said flatly, “Though I suppose that was decent for a first round…”

Blue-black brows furrowed as the girl looked around her again, still in this ‘place’ that Reki said she crafted… for torture… and her wounds were gone… finally her white eyes settled on those red and black ones, “Baba… what you said…?”

The flat look left Reki’s face for a moment as she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, “the thing about secrets kid, someone will _always_ find out…” those red and black eyes stared at the girl seriously, “No matter what you do, or how careful you are, someone will find out…” a barely perceptible shudder went through the woman before her cold persona returned, “What matters is what you call ‘reality’, remembering the ‘truths’ you care so much about… what is ‘real’ to you, understand?”

Skeptically the girl grimaced at the older woman, “then what you said…”

Reki glanced to the side, “I know why you’re here, who you were, and the value you have to Kumo as a whole…”

Blue-black brows furrowed more, demanding without words for Reki to continue, to tell the young girl what the hell she was talking about.

“Over seven years ago, a high ranking jounin, under the Raikage’s orders, was sent on a diplomatic mission to Konoha to sign the treaty to end the war,” those red and black eyes seriously stared at the girl, “His _real_ mission was to capture a member of the Hyuuga clan, _alive_ , so we could use them as a donor for R&D’s Section B, at best they’d join us and give their genes freely, at worst they’d be sent to Section B, used as breeding stock and eventually killed once we had our own source of the bloodline…”

It was barely perceptible, but Reki could see the girl’s eyes widening…

A frown started to form on her own lips without her notice, “For reasons unknown, Gashinra switched his target, accomplishing his mission, but instead of an adult Hyuuga, he had acquired a toddler… their heiress… Hyuuga Hina-”

“I KNOW!!”

Reki paused, honestly surprised the girl shouted. The desk clerk hadn’t been lying when she said all information passed through her, and with her photographic memory, no doubt thanks to her bastard’s blood, she never forgot a single bit of it. She had known the mission, pieced together the sudden ‘appearance’ of the girl, the bandana as the Raikage’s idiotic way of hiding it, the Hyuuga dignitaries visiting that Joshu thankfully handled, then all that other mess… it had been a long standing curiosity of Reki’s why the sudden change in the mission, not the acquisition, Gashinra was a moron constantly grasping for power and overstepping himself, so it was no surprise he brought back the heiress. The ‘shocker’ had been that the Raikage had ‘kept’ the girl, not only as a ward of sorts originally but to eventually adopt her, now made all the more official as he presented her to the Enclave for approval. The girl was being raised as a princess of Kumo, both by that lug the Raikage, and Reki had seen firsthand how much it changed her first daughter, Satsuki, who had given up her humanity for that idiot by becoming solely ‘Kemui’.

Why had they done it? More importantly, did the girl that seemed to just be going along with it **_understand_** how much they were putting into her…?

This had been part of the reason Reki had brought her into this ‘null space’ she used when that old Bikko-jiji called her back for particularly hard cases. Nothing inside this space could be overheard or seen, it was perfectly safe for them to ‘discuss’ things, and as a trick of these eyes of hers, it would only be a second in the ‘real world’ no matter how long the two of them were in here. The girl called her ‘Grandmother’, and as her ‘Grandmother’ she wanted her granddaughter to be prepared for anything, **_ANYTHING_** the world outside Kumo had to offer… she was Kumo’s top torture expert and Bloody Captain, she **_knew_ ** how cruel the world of shinobi could be, she’d personally raised the bar a few times herself.

Mei and Jun had gone through this exercise, and as much as she loathed to think about it, she’d probably send Kemui’s brat through it as well when he got old enough. Reki had no idea if either of her kids had awakened their eyes or if that little white haired brat truly was an Uchiha and would, but they had secrets to keep for this village and more importantly for themselves, they had to know how to never reveal anything…

Yorihi… Tenkyuu Yorihi as named by the Raikage that adopted her, was no different… kid ‘deserved’ this, with how developed she was in most areas, she needed a buffer, a way to resist torture, and by extension genjutsu as it was all the same property. If your will was strong enough, people would just keep at you until you died, and it was always better to die with your secrets then spill them yourself…

Now here she was, facing the kid, and forcing her to face the ‘truth’… only the kid already knew? “Heh,” Reki couldn’t help but smirk, “And here I thought the Nibi messed your head up enough you’d never remember the ‘truth’…”

The girl had a frown and death glare that would put her Teacher to shame, “The only ‘truth’ that matters to me is I am Tenkyuu Yorihi, daughter of the Yondaime Raikage!!”

Red and black eyes blinked, surprised by the young girl’s conviction, “You don’t care about your biological parents? How your ‘family’ brought you here?”

That frown grew as the girl glared harder, all the more scary with those strangely still-yet-active eyes, “I was born Hyuuga Hinata, kidnapped and brought to Kumo, where my Father released me, gave me a choice, and renamed me Tenkyuu Yorihi…” what Reki didn’t know was Tougemichi had tried a similar tactic, telling her ‘the truth’ and trying to get her to turn against Kumo for their ‘wrongs’. It hadn’t worked then, and it wouldn’t work now. Her jaw clinched as the girl shuddered with both rage and pride, “Whatever he and Kemui-sama originally planned for me… doesn’t matter, as they showed me more care and kindness with their stumbling steps than anyone did the day my mother died…”

At this, Reki just stared… it had never been something she thought about, the girl was fully aware of ‘ _who_ ’ she was, and chose to be this person, Tenkyuu Yorihi, because her kidnappers, idiots that they were, had been _kinder_ to her then her biological family. Reki could only stare at the girl, to think she had this in her from long ago, day one perhaps… she never saw anywhere but Kumo as her home, the Raikage and Kemui as the closest things she had to parents, and anyone else from there; family.

The girl had mastered a concept long ago that took most people decades to understand.

And suddenly, with that thought in mind the Torture expert just started chuckling, “Heh, you really are something kid…”

Yorihi calmed down a bit, questioningly staring at the older woman.

An unusual smile crept onto Reki’s face, something real and earnest, “so you don’t care about Konoha or anyone in it?”

A swift shake of the girl’s head in the negative, “I never had any loyalty to that place…” for some reason the girl seemed to bristle, “Especially with what happened to Kemui-sama there…”

 A black brow rose on Reki’s face, “How do you know about that?”

Those immovable white eyes were serious as she looked up at her Grandmother, “it doesn’t take a genius to tell something happened to her there, why else would my Father limit her movements to within the village?” that black brow on her Grandmother’s face rose higher, impressed, “As for knowing it was Konoha…” she shrugged, “Bachi-chan overheard my Father talking to someone from R&D about ‘samples’ she had collected of… of, well…”

If Reki didn’t know any better she would say the girl was ‘looking’ directly at her red and black eyes. The older woman just huffed, “The Sharingan… and if you know what these are, you know the clan that has them?”

The girl effortlessly nodded, “Recent history says they were wiped out, one member going insane or something, killing the rest…” those white eyes once again glanced at her Grandmother’s strange colored eyes, “Baba… about yours?”

The older woman growled, shrugging restlessly, “Don’t ask, you already have enough ‘ _secrets_ ’ you need to keep hidden…”

The girl simply nodded.

Reki, on the other hand, sighed deeply, brushing a hand through her hair, “Guess you’re better at this ‘game’ then any of us adults thought, huh?”

Skittishly the girl looked down, “Please don’t tell Otou-sama or Kemui-sama… I think they prefer not to worry about my remembering… or knowing any of this…” she mumbled the last part more to herself.

Reki just stared at the young girl, “Heh,” she waved her hand, “Look at you, strapped to a chair in a torture cell illusion, and you’re more worried about the people who kidnapped and brainwashed you?”

Again, Yorihi bristled, “They didn’t kidnap or brainwash me!!” the shouting would probably be more threatening if the girl weren’t tied up, “I chose to stay, chose to be this person, and I’d rather pay them and this village back for its kindness then go back and be whatever the hell those bastards want of me!!”

A black brow rose, intrigued, “And what about what **_we_** want from you?”

A pout grew on the bound girl’s face, “Be a shinobi? Fight for this village? Live here and defend it? What else would they want of me that isn’t asked of any other member of Kumo?”

Again, Reki blinked, surprised by the girl, “You know, there are those that know of you in this Village that want you to start breeding more Byakuugan wielders as soon as possible?”

Oddly, the girl just snorted, “And those bastards in Konoha wouldn’t want that as well?” the older woman just shrugged, conceding to the logic, “Besides,” the girl growled, “They’d have to get through my family, Kumo’s Jinchuuriki, Last Assassin, Raikage AND Bachiko!!”

At that brave declaration the torture expert just started laughing, wiping away tears, “I guess I was worried over nothing… hehe...”

The pout on the younger girl’s face increased as she seemed to calm down while her Grandmother continued laughing, “Baba…”

At the call Reki stopped, facing the girl.

“You do _this_ ,” she shrugged, gesturing to the world around them, “Because you care about me, about Kumo?”

All laughs were gone as Reki stared at the girl seriously, “Kumo is my home, my family,” the older woman crossed her arms as memories ran through her, “I’ve bled for this village, given up everything for it and it has been the only place I would want to return to,” those red and black eyes narrowed seriously, “I would do anything to protect this village and its future, even if that future is built on a foundation of my own bones…” tan hands clinched, “Kumo will survive, it always has… my children, and their children, must also survive.”

Yorihi nodded, understanding the woman’s words, her pride just as strong as her Father’s or Uncle’s or any other member of Kumo, “I’m your Granddaughter Baba,” those white eyes stared into those red and black ones, “even if not by blood, but you are **_my_** Grandmother,” everything about the girl clinched as she continued in all seriousness, “Teach me how to survive…”

Reki kicked off the wall again, arms crossed seriously as she looked down at the bound girl, seeing seriousness she had never seen in a child so young before. – _Well… there was one kid…_ \- a smirk rose on the torture expert’s face, “You really do remind me of Satsuki when she was younger… so brash and willing to give…” she shook her head before Yorihi even had a chance to ask, “I’ll teach you, as not only will this help you in the future when you find yourself in this kind of situation, but the stronger your will, the harder it is to be trapped in genjutsu,” again a blade appeared in the woman’s hand as that passive look came over her face, “But remember, you asked for this, and I won’t be holding back anymore…”

With all the seriousness that she could muster, Tenkyuu Yorihi nodded.

“It’s not real,” Reki raised the blade, “Remember that…”

Then it came down, and the torture began…

\-----

When Yorihi woke up, after what felt like months of torture at the hands of her Grandmother, she was lying on her back on the hard stone of a training ground she vaguely remembered from long ago. Her eyes were active, seeing everything around her, the feel of the world went off in all the distances it could, the scents and sounds normal for what she remembered was ‘reality’.

Bachiko, her long missing companion, was curled up protectively on her chest…

It was drizzling… cold… wet…

“You sleep like the dead kid,” that familiar voice cut into her ‘waking’ back in reality, almost from a long, over extended nightmare. Without moving she could see her Grandmother sitting not far off, legs crossed with one elbow propped on her knee holding her chin, “It’s a good think I don’t have your parents here, they’d probably kill me for this…”

That was when Yorihi finally registered the _very real_ pain above her brows, focusing her waking senses she felt and saw hands moving around, pricking the area, until finally her sight became focused enough to see a familiar old man with white-pinkish hair, “U-Uzushio-s-an…?”

The stern man just seemed to nod gently, continuing his movements, some device in one hand pricking above her eyebrows while the other wiped away liquid with a cloth, “It is good to see you conscious, young lady,” a grandfatherly smile rose on his aged features gently, “though perhaps if you had stayed asleep for this it would have been better… hold still.”

Uncovered white eyes squinted at the man, confused by what he was talking about…

“She’s already been asleep for a day and a half,” Reki whined from her seat, “though suppose that’s a good thing with how much she went through in there…”

“Hmp,” the old man grunted, “and this is why I’ll never trust, let alone _respect_ , your kind…” more tapping then wiping away the area, “and to such a young child…”

“Oh shut up, Uzu-teme,” the ‘younger’ woman growled, “be glad I called you in to do this instead of just doing it myself…”

Those aged purple eyes rolled, “The fact you figured out that Chakra Storage Seal and put it all over your body is not something to be proud of,” another disgruntled grunt as he continued his work, “And you have no idea how to make this seal so you would have **_HAD_** to summon my help, so don’t act so ungrateful!!”

“Tch,” arms crossed and glaring with once-again-black narrow eyes the woman huffed, “Then stop being such an ass and hurry it up…”

“W-what…” the young girl between the bickering old people called out, “What seal?”

“Hehe,” a threatening grin passed over the older woman’s face, “It’s quite ingenious really, I’m rather proud of myself for thinking it up and-”

“Firstly,” Uzushio cut in as he was finishing up the edges of what he was working on, “ ** _I_** made this seal ages ago,” there was a growl from the black haired woman, “Secondly,” his grandfatherly purple eyes gazed into the girl’s odd white ones, “it will help with your recognition of genjutsu, every time an advanced one strikes it’ll cut off the registration of your eyes, you’ll be temporarily blind while affected by the illusion, telling you it is one so you can break it…”

White eyes blinked slowly, “So I’ll really be blind?”

The older man had a gentle grin as he pulled his hands away, wiping the area clean as he had finished, “Only temporarily, once the illusion is removed your sight will return like normal, this should help you keep your illusion of being blind…”

The girl weakly nodded before a thought came to mind, “isn’t that cheating though?”

This time Reki busted out laughing, “brat, we’re shinobi, if we ain’t cheating, we ain’t trying hard enough!” wide grin and fist pumping was completely necessary.

Uzushio just flatly stared at the woman, before turning back to the girl, “If you’d like I could deactivate it…”

Something sounded like someone hitting the ground really hard…

With a small smile the young girl shook her head in the negative, “Mm, I don’t want to throw away Baba and Jiji’s gift…”

Pinkish-white and black brows rose, “Jiji?” Uzushio and Reki shared a look, shuddered, and looked away from one another.

Yorihi just grinned, giggling slightly to herself as she sat up, Bachiko rolling off her chest into her lap as she felt how stiff she was from apparently being unconscious for a while. Right above her eyebrows stung, and as tempted as she was to wipe them, she knew from however long she’d spent under her Grandmother’s illusion the best thing to do with pain was to ignore it, not aggravate it. A shudder racked through the young girl, as she really didn’t want to think about what she’d just been through mentally, so instead focused on the cat rolling around in her lap, “What’s it look like Bachi-chan?”

The upside-down cat snorted, glaring slightly with his vibrant blue eyes before turning around, sitting in her lap as prim-and-proper as a feline of his breeding ought to. Those long ears of his tilted back as the ghost-cat scrutinized the new markings above the young girl’s eyebrows… then he just snorted, unimpressed.

“Really…” Yorihi responded flatly, ignoring her earlier instinct and rubbing _near_ the new tattoos, “Just light blue lines? How is that a seal?”

Reki, of course, found this insult to be entertaining, as the older woman snickered.

Uzushio, on the other hand, stared flatly, “The seals are **_in_** the tattoos, it would be rather stupid to have them sitting out for the whole world to see…” this time his purple gaze fell on his arch-nemesis and the woman’s damnable black tattoos.

“What?!” was her response, the two just continued glaring at one another.

Still rubbing _around_ the tattoos, as they stung, Yorihi just moved her head from one older shinobi to the other, “So… thank you?”

The two stopped glaring at each other long enough to acknowledge the girl’s comment, “Yea, no problem kid.” “It was my pleasure to help.”

Yorihi just smiled at them both, then Bachiko batted at the fabric hanging around her neck and she squeaked, immediately lifting the bandana to cover her eyes, feeling suddenly much more comfortable with it in place.

“Hmm,” Uzushio was rubbing his pink mustache, “now I see why you picked that color… it does rather make her eyebrows stand out…”

“Told you,” Reki huffed, proud of herself but grumbling at the same time, “And you wanted to put orange… seriously, who puts **_orange_** next to dark blue?”

“You wanted contrast to make her eyebrows stand out!!” the old man barked.

“ _STAND OUT_ not appear to be blazing targets that scream _KILL ME NOW!!_ ” the ‘younger’ woman barked back.

“Umm…?” Yorihi was just confused, watching the adults argue in front of her…

Bachiko passively snorted, having to have put up with these two for the past day, thank the kami his master had been asleep for most of it.

Not sure what would make either of them stop and feeling her stomach protest heavily to lack of attention, she said the first thing that would hopefully grab their attention, “Can I get something to eat…?”

Shockingly the two ‘adults’ stopped, staring at her…

Reki was the first to grin and hop up, “Hell yea, I’ll whip you up something brat, you’ve earned it!” at Yorihi’s now-easier-to-read-raised brow, the woman’s grin just increased, “This is my gift to you kid, all Kumo-nin have tattoos somewhere, and like my mother before me, and I did with my kids, I got you yours!!”

A slight blush rose on the girl’s covered face, “B-but, Baba, I’m not a shinobi yet?”

“Pfft,” the woman waved her hand, “Maybe not officially, but by my standards, you passed a long time ago, all you’re missing is this,” she fingered her own hitae-ate around her neck before waving her hand for the girl to follow, “Now c’mon, food, I’m cooking!!”

“Oh no you’re not!” Uzushio, much more spritely then one would think for a man as old as he looked, hopped to his feet and charged past the ‘younger’ woman, “I put a lot of effort into that seal, and for being such a good patient and dealing with your insanity, the girl needs some **_REAL_** food!!” for whatever reason the old man pumped his fist, “I’m making her RAMEN!!”

“Bullshit!!” a straw sandal-clad foot met the middle of the old man’s back, knocking him over, “Girl needs some **_REAL_** food!! Meat and lots of it!!” fist pumping and drooling was totally required.

Yorihi just watched a moment as the two argued back and forth over what was ‘real food’, before letting out a laugh, grabbing Bachiko and going after them. Food sounded good, and so long as it was better than ‘bat-jerky’ she could honestly care less what it was… though something sweet for once would be really nice. Bachiko happily nodded in agreement.

\------

Tobihi – flying sparks, rua- -lure, Rua-Tobihi: Flying Sparks Lure


	8. Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its almost time for the Academy Graduation, what's Kemui thinking?

It was an average day in Kumo…

**_ BOOOOOOOOOOOM!! _ **

“ _KAMI BE DAMNED!! YORIHI!!”_ a shrill voice screamed loud enough to be heard throughout the village as what appeared to be a good chunk of an old ceramic looking structure fell into the voluminous depths of the Demon Ridge Mountains, never to be seen again as it was swallowed by the clouds.

“Oops…” was the obscure response as tattooed brows quirked, obviously not nearly as concerned as her compatriots.

The blonde and dusky-pinkette next to the shorter girl openly sighed, shoulders slumping obviously as for some reason this had become standard to them.

“Goddamnit…” Xiao pinched the bridge of her nose, “Another freakin’ ‘fix-it’ mission…”

The silly boy in his silly hat seemed to smile brightly to his prospective partner, “At least we’re getting in some good practice…”

Red eyes glared at the boy’s optimistic smile, “practice for what? Fixing buildings?!”

“Demolitions!!” If the two girls didn’t know any better the boy’s grin widened.

There was a collective sigh from the girls, badger and bakeneko.

\-----

In the depths of the Raikage’s tower…

The mighty Oni himself was seated at his desk, which he didn’t do very often as there was barely ever any paperwork on it. Kemui had trained up that Mabui girl well, she was even faster at making his paperwork disappear then that other guy, whatshisname that had been working for him before… josh, joseh… whatever it was…

“Joshu, sir,” speak of the devil. The great Oni peaked one tiny black eye open to spot the man with the eternal shades and easily forgettable face. Joshu, now head of Admin. simply pushed up his shades, “I doubt you realized… or _felt_ it,” he may have grumbled that last part to himself, “But you’re daughter has damaged yet another building… _again_.” The average looking man in his early thirties remembered the girl when she’d first come to Kumo, so cute and adorable, quiet and polite… and while those qualities could still _technically_ apply to her they had become deceptive… as apparently the girl had inherited an unfortunate habit of her father’s… and every Raikage and leaders prior to the formation of Kumo before her; Property damage.

Thank all the kami, bhudda, Way, and whatever other cosmic entities were out there for those bloody fix-it seals…

Still having only one eye staring at the small man, the Raikage scratched his chin, “The same pair?”

Again, Joshu pushed up his shades, perhaps in mild annoyance, “Yes, Raikage-sama.”

The mighty Oni’s eye closed as he seemed to ruffle his shoulder, “You know the deal, docked pay, required work,” a wave of the hand, not particularly caring as there was absolutely _nothing_ strange about hearing his daughter causing massive destruction when working with her favorite team. For the past three months the Triad and Kemui had convinced him the best way to learn Yorihi’s capabilities was to let her work with the other students and gain as much experience as possible. Since that crazy woman that sat at the front desk took the girl away for two days, returning her with _tattoos_ no less (he had been very proud, not that he would say it out loud as Kemui had been present and the look she’d been sending Reki would have killed a lesser human being) the girl’s focus and drive in her classes had significantly increased. Whatever Reki did, and as much as he was concerned about his daughter knew better than to ask when that psycho was involved, had strangely encouraged the young girl. Sure for the first week she had been unusually tense, especially around certain kinds of knives (it had been rather difficult for Kemui to properly teach the girl her ‘knife tricks’ when the supposedly blind girl would unconsciously shudder at merely the _sound_ of a blade) but she eventually got over it and proceeded to do excellent academically.

This made the Raikage proud, as he would never admit it but he had been worried for the girl. No matter how old she got, what training she received, and how much he **_loved_** the idea of being a ‘Father’ to the girl, he would always worry about her in the back of his mind. Part of him wondered if this was making him a terrible parent, always concerned for his girl when she was obviously doing well and following in his proud footsteps, much to the chagrin of the village.

So with her increased progress the Triad, and Kemui, had suggested allowing her more time ‘in the field’, as she still had the quota to fill before her graduation. Sure, the mission quota wasn’t ‘required’ for the Crash Course, as much as Moe snarked about it, but none of them had told the girl. _‘Why waste an opportunity?_ ’ Again, as Moe had eloquently put it.

So for the past three months Yorihi had had an increased work load, to accommodate the missions added to her course, as the instructors didn’t want to give up _any_ of their precious teaching time with their _special_ student. The girl was on a schedule that would run any chuunin ragged and the Raikage couldn’t be any more proud, his girl was doing great!

Thus the pair roulette, every other day Yorihi was assigned a different pair from her class to follow and work with. Some teams worked fine, others were terrible, but both her parents and the Triad had noticed she only seemed to _truly_ get along with one certain pair: Oku and Xiao. Due to the repetitive association, and buildings being damaged, the two had come under scrutiny from the higher echelons of Kumo, Yorihi’s immediate family. Bee whined about already having a pair in training, Yugito seemed to giggle in that cat way calling them cute, and Kemui seemed to only shrug her shoulder, whatever that meant.

At the moment, the Raikage didn’t know. The two were seemingly a pair his daughter felt comfortable enough around to show her _true_ self, the fact she was _obviously_ **_his_** Daughter! Why else did she always blow something up when working with them? And even when assigned to another team by the end of the day the younger girl would wonder to those two, making it all the more obvious she was more comfortable around them than any of the other students.

To be honest, the Raikage didn’t remember much from his academy years, just that he butted heads with just about everyone, getting into fights and driving his teachers nuts, especially the Masters at the time. When Bee had joined the Academy he’d been very protective of his dopy little brother, beating up kids that called him a bastard and whatever else. He’d actually been happy when Bee became friends with Matoi and hoped they’d be paired up, course the whole ‘Hachibi deal’ happened and their father finally found a use for his illegitimate son, and the rest was history.

He’d been an arrogant little bastard, intent on beating his prick of a father, ‘friends’ hadn’t been high on his list. Course, Yorihi seemed to have inherited that as well from him, if not some of the more tempered attitude from his assassin, but it seemed his little girl had made some ‘friends’ anyway, though he wondered if she even realized it.

All this speculation put him in an odd mood, he knew it was getting to be that time, and as much as he was proud of his daughter for connecting to some of Kumo’s up-and-coming students, he knew she and they were in two completely different leagues. He’d have to find a partner appropriate to her level and someone he could trust to be their teacher. – _Kemui probably has it covered_ \- with a nod; the great Oni knew the matter was settled. He knew his assassin, and there was no way that woman didn’t already have several plans in store for his little girl.

“Raikage-sama,” a certain voice groaned in front of the large terrifying man who’d apparently fallen asleep or something, “Don’t you think you should **_do_** something about this rampant destructive habit you’re daughter has… _acquired_?”

A tiny black eye opened, “Her and her team are going to go fix it right?” Joshu gave an exasperated nod, “Then what’s the problem?”

Another groan from the paperwork master, damning why he was _still_ here discussing this… where had his replacement gotten to?! This was her job!! “Nothing Raikage-sama,” there may or may not have been a groan as the man pushed up his shades, “I shall inform mission dispersal immediately,” with a disinterested shrug the Admin. head knew he’d been dismissed. A respectful bow and the man was gone.

Leaving the mighty Oni sitting behind his spotless desk, grinning to himself.

… Just another _average_ day in Kumo.

\-----

The next day…

“YORIHI DON’T YOU **_DARE_** USE THAT DAMN WHIP-THING!!” was the rampant growl above Oku’s head as the patient boy was seated in a meditative position, holding a seal with his hands in front of him, eyes closed and completely focusing on the paper seal in front of him… while sitting on a scaffold hanging off the side of the building Yorihi had destroyed yesterday several miles above endless clouds.

Lior, his badger hanging precariously off the boy’s shoulder, was not very pleased with this position. He made his discomfort well known by growling and hissing at the girls as they bounced back and forth above his patient master.

Yorihi gave something of a scoff, rolling her hidden white eyes, which translated to an easily recognizable twitching of her tattooed brows. Honestly, Xiao was overreacting…

“DON’T YOU **_DARE_** ROLL YOUR BROWS AT ME!!” Xiao happened to be pointing indignantly at Yorihi… standing completely horizontal as the two were taking this moment, like they often did when the blind girl broke some building, bridge, scaffold… etc. to practice their sparing and other combative techniques… while Oku did all the **_real_** work with the seal, as he was the only one that wouldn’t burn the things out. It took them two months to figure that out.

“I am not,” there may or may not have been a whine in the younger girl’s voice as she obviously lied, also standing horizontally on the side of the roundish building she’d broken yesterday. Today the girls thought it was a _great_ idea to get a better grasp on their wall-walking… as they had little else to do and simply walking up and down a mountainside in Kuri-sensei’s class wasn’t _challenging_ enough for the aspiring ninjutsu power-houses.

Oku, being the one with the best chakra control between the three of them, passed wall-walking with ease, with his _adequate_ reserves he wasn’t particularly concerned about practicing it repetitively as he didn’t think he’d ever have the kind of ‘crazy-ginormous-off-the-charts’ reserves the girls’ had, especially Yorihi, so deemed to focus more on his control, maximizing his usage of chakra right now and building his reserves naturally with his physical skills and exercise. This, of course, meant he had to be the one to play with the _silly_ fix-it seals, which he was fine with. He wasn’t particularly in the mood, **_ever_** , to fall off a building because he ran out of chakra or some other silly situation he’d seen the girls get into more than once.

… though there was something to be said about just _how_ good his focus and control was when both girls went off again, grabbing the ropes of the scaffold to make quick turns or safety grabs as they miscalculated a jump or chakra shaking the entire thing and he didn’t so much as move.

Lior did not approve.

Yorihi had her beat rods out, kicking off the scaffold rope charging at Xiao, the older girl back flipping **_up_ ** the building into a single handstand vertically near the top, one hand in a half-seal as she breathed in deeply. The blind girl gripped her weapons tighter, super-charging a leap causing an indent in the side of the building that quickly started to fix itself thanks to Oku, as she removed the distance between herself and Xiao, intent to at least knock the red-eyed girl off balance before she got off another lightning-type jutsu. Anticipating Yorihi’s charge, honestly the girl was getting easier to read when frustrated, Xiao bounced out of reach just as the girl slid her right weapon up in an uppercut slash, landing in a crouch about two feet up, one hand still in a seal and still holding her breath… only to quickly release it as she literally breathed out lightning!

Finding nothing better to do, Yorihi simply let go of her chakra and literally _fell_ out of the way of the lightning…

It passed over Oku’s head, singing Lior’s fur, causing the badger to hiss and growl more obscenities at the girls while his master didn’t even notice.

Mid-fall Yorihi reached into her new back pouch, a gift of sorts from her Teacher, pulling out one of her specialized kunai. After adding a little chakra into the thing, hearing her Teacher’s rather rough and adamant voice to **_not_** overload the seals in her head… as it would **_literally_** blow up in her hand, she threw the specialized knife with expert precision, hitting the mark at the bottom of the building she had been aiming at as a length of strong, elastic wire extended from the kunai’s handle, wrapped around her armguard and held in her hand. By a simple trick of physics she’d been trying to work out best, she jerked the wire just before it went taught and managed to use her own force to swing back up the other side of the building…

… only to overshoot it by quite a bit and luckily fall onto the connecting bridge, landing in a bit of fumbled roll until coming up sitting rather stunned.

Red-eyes looked down at the blind girl with a wry grin, hands on her hips matronly as she tried not to laugh, “I don’t know if that was a masterful save or dumb-luck, heh!”

The patient boy in his silly hat sitting on the scaffold to the side turned to grin at the downed girl, “I think it was a great save!! Good job Yorihi-hime!!”

The smirk on the dark skinned girl’s face increased, “Yea Princess, _great_ job~”

The younger girl’s shoulders slumped with a slight groan as she remained seated on the bridge. Xiao had figured out who she was, as in the Raikage’s daughter, but hadn’t told anyone, thankfully seeming to understand in some part what it was all for and what it meant. That did not mean the girl hadn’t taken a bizarre pleasure in calling her by the same nickname Moe-sensei did, the demented little psycho of a teacher highly approving when she overhead Xiao use it causing both the girl’s to shiver, but that was beside the point. Yorihi got… _annoyed_ with Xiao’s name-calling, but then Oku started calling her ‘hime’ and it was just plain weird, she didn’t know if he was copying his potential-partner or if he actually knew.  After the first few times he did it she’d questioned him, he just gave a smile saying she just seemed the type, which didn’t really settle her worry at all. After a while the young girl started to realize the two weren’t meaning anything mean by it, in a way it was just their way of ‘accepting’ her as she was… which was probably why she preferred working with the two, less information to have to worry about…

That _did **not**_ mean she had to act like she was okay with it, “The both of you can bite me!!” such an adolescent retort garnered an equally adolescent response… Oku and Xiao just started laugh while the blind girl pouted.

“Maa, Yorihi-chan~” a smooth voice called from behind the girl that caused her shoulders to slink up to her ears, “What would Aneue think, hearing you talk like that to your subordinates?” Yorihi didn’t _need_ to see it, even though she totally could with ease, but that Cheshire grin on the taller blonde woman’s face could be easily heard in her voice, “Especially in front of this little guy? Tsk, tsk,” a pointing hand waved chidingly, “What kind of big sister are you, Yorihi-chan~”

Yorihi’s shoulders went up a little bit higher as she stilled with each word the cat-woman said.

Blonde and dusky-pink brows rose as Xiao and Oku stared at the scene, the new woman, Yorihi’s reaction, sharing a look before looking back. Of course Xiao was the first to speak, hands on her hips and brow raised high down at their cohort, “Big sister?”

This only caused Yorihi to stiffen more; she may or may not have been poking her index fingers together…

“Yorihi-sama!!” a cheery young boy’s voice cut through the tense atmosphere as he trotted out behind the taller blonde, carrying a familiar blue-black tabby who seemed to be pouting being held in such a degrading position by a damn pup, “Batsu-chan found me again!!”

Yorihi’s shoulders deflated, unable to uphold any kind of tough demeanor in front of Sutego’s bright face and just how ridiculous Bachiko looked while glaring at her. Those tattooed brows rose in the center as she turned to the boy, holding her hands out for her feline companion, “Its ‘Bachiko’ Sutego-kun…” the girl may or may not have been glaring _slightly_ at Yugito, who was grinning like a cat, not that anyone could see it.

“Khehehe,” the blonde woman terribly hid her snicker, “no need to ‘brow’-glare at me like that, wasn’t my fault he mixed it up~”

The ‘brow’-glare, as everyone in her family started to jokingly call the way her tattooed brows moved when she glared at someone, continued on the older woman.

Sutego’s innocent black eyes blinked as small white brows furrowed and he had the cutest pout on his face, turning to the older blonde, “But Yugito-ba-sama, you said it was ‘batsu’ not ‘bachi’?”

Yorihi flatly ‘brow’-glared at her older sister/aunt, feeling utterly vindicated as _Bachiko_ finally squirmed his way out of the young boy’s grasp and thankfully took his proper place on his master’s shoulders. _Finally!_ Away from the pup!

The young white haired boy gave the cutest pout, nearly causing Xiao to fall off the building with its adorableness.

Yorihi just grinned comfortably, scratching under the finicky feline’s chin.

“Eheheh…” the older blonde was scratching the side of her face nervous, choosing to ignore the accusation as she stood straight, looking at the other two potential genin staring, “Oi!!” the cat-woman grinned, “You guys must be Yorihi-chan’s minions, right?!”

A certain dusky pink haired girl may or may not have fallen off the building… because she lost concentration for a moment, yea, that was it.

There was a chuckle from the scaffold, “Yes, ma’am!! We look out for the interests of our patron!!”

Several brows rose.

Though with Yugito’s blonde one that familiar cat-like smirk joined it, “Oh really?” she walked down the bridge a bit, past Yorihi and Sutego before leaning over the chain, watching as the sole boy was sitting on a precarious piece of wood held by rope with his hands together in a seal focusing on fixing the damage. The young woman shook her head, “Honestly you two,” glancing over her shoulder at the two girls down on the bridge, “Making the _boy_ do all the actual work while you slack off?”

Yorihi’s face was placid as she gave a slight shrug, Sutego looking up at the older girl with a confused white brow.

There was, on the other hand, a growl from the older girl. Xiao pushed up off the wood, scowl on her face that would make her brother proud as she looked the blonde woman up and down, “We’re not slacking off…”

“Oh really?” a blonde brow rose as Yugito turned just enough to glance at the red-eyed girl over her shoulder. She nudged her head toward Oku, “he’s the only one I see doing the mission,” her other shoulder nudged towards Yorihi, “and I know what she’s capable of, so she’s allowed to slack off,” there was a wry smirk on the young woman’s face as the blind girl flatly ‘glared’ at the woman, she did _not_ slack off! “So pinky,” a cat-grin rose on her face, “what would you do if I were to attack him right now?”

A cold look passed the girl’s red-eyes, her jaw tightening and her fists twitching to make fists…

“Nee-chan,” Yorihi growled, standing on her feet; that aggressive pout Yugito recognized from a man eight times bigger and skin tone much darker.

That damnable cat-grin, “What Yori-chan?” wide enough her eyes closed, “partners have to recognize priorities when on missions, can’t just have one doing everything…”

“You’re right,” both jinchuuriki and blind girl turned to the darker toned girl, both noticing how her stance had become much sterner, obviously setting herself between the older woman and her partner, never losing that cold look in her red eyes, “He has the control for this job, _we_ ,” she nodded towards Yorihi who held her rods tighter, “watch his back.”

“ ‘Watch’?” that wry smile was back, “with those red eyes and a blind girl?”

“ _And_ Bachi-chan, Nee-chan,” Yorihi said flatly as the cat wryly smirked from the girl’s shoulder.

Yugito grinned at the blind girl, “Didn’t I say you were my niece?”

A muffled shrug was her response, “What I first called you…”

A smirk picked at the blonde woman’s lips, “Fair enough,” before turning back to the other two would-be-genin, “So red-eyes,” smirk may have grown a bit as Xiao ruffled, “you say this is the set up?” a pale hand pointed at the older girl, “You and my adorable niece here,” maybe a snicker at the way the younger girl groaned, or was that her cat? “Are playing interference while he’s setting up whatever the mission objective is?”

Xiao gave a firm nod, “Yes.”

A pale hand came up and ran under the blonde woman’s chin, “hmm,” her eyes closing in a squint while she was thinking, making her look rather much like a pondering cat, “So you say you’re fine with this set up?” an iron black eye cracked open, “Even if, say hypothetically, he were setting up a bomb…” both eyes cracked open to stare at the older girl who didn’t seem to move, “Meant to wipe out everyone in a village, possibly even yourself, but you were the only thing between enemy shinobi and your partner planting that thing correctly… you’d be fine with that?”

In Yorihi’s opinion, the look that came over Xiao’s face was very reminiscent of her grandmother when she got that ‘thuggish’ pout on her face about not being allowed to smoke, very serious and very deadly, “If we got such a job, I’d trust him to do it right, so all I have to worry about is keeping him alive…”

Those serious cat eyes looked at the girl, a finger trailing her chin, “Even if that cost you your life?”

There were times, few and far between, that Yorihi honestly hated her ability to see **_everything_** around her at once, which is part of the reason she tended to ignore her sight. This was one of those times, without moving her head she could clearly see the look on Xiao’s face, how it didn’t change one bit, while simultaneously she could see Oku, over on the hanging scaffold turn and look directly at their classmate. The boy usually had a lazy-carefree look about him, seeming to have his eyes closed most of the time, though mostly it was from him grinning constantly… so to see him look straight at Xiao, who had her back to him, _without_ that lazy-carefree look on his face, it being serious enough Yorihi could clearly see his thin sea foam green eyes directly on his would-be-partner, was… startling to be honest.

“You ask that like my opinion matters,” Xiao’s voice was flat, her face serious as she just continued looking at the blonde woman, not knowing the look the blonde boy was sending her way, even if she did notice Yorihi’s brows lowering like something suddenly bothered her…

That snide cat-grin returned to Yugito’s features, “You’re right, you don’t really have a choice, huh?” the older woman stood straight, still having her hands up in a musing fashion as she turned to look out off the bridge a bit, “Though, I have to say…” a devious cat-smirk rose on her face as she turned just enough to look at the girl, “Just because you don’t say it, doesn’t mean it’s not there…” that grin spread wide, showing her elongated canines, “And you _certainly_ got gall girl, I can see why my adorable niece likes you guys so much~”

Dusky-pink brows furrowed in the middle before red eyes turned to her classmate with the odd white haired boy standing behind her holding her shirt, “Princess, what’s with this woman?” absently a dark hand pointed at Yugito as Xiao gave her a quick once over, “She really your aunt?”

The ‘blind’ girl gave an uncaring shrug, “As much as my Uncle is…” it wasn’t much of an answer and Yorihi knew it, Bachiko snorting at her openly about it being both a lie and the truth. She just turned and glared at him, with both eyebrows and hidden white eyes. – _Shut up…_ \- the ghostly feline snorted again for good measure.

That was when Yugito let out a jovial laugh, “Yorihi, you’ve not told them about me?”

The frown spread on the dark haired girl’s pale face, “You know I’m not _supposed_ to…” honestly she’d been one of the ones all for this ‘game’.

That evil Cheshire grin, “You at least told them about Sutego-kun right?” oh how it got wider as the two older academy students’ brows rose, “You’re adorable _little brother_ …”

Yorihi could feel her shoulders ruffling, scrunching up towards her ears at Yugito’s teasing, the older woman knowing full well she wasn’t _supposed_ to tell anyone anything if she could avoid it.

“Y-Yorihi-s-sama,” a stuttering quiet voice pulled the youngest girl’s attention down as the white boy shook her kimono-like shirt. His small earnest pale face was so cute, and those black eyes trying to look serious but couldn’t pull the kind of look she knew her Teacher could do to prove her serious intents, “Y-you don’t h-have to say anything… um…” he pouted, lowering his head trying to find the right words to say what he meant. It was obvious he didn’t want to embarrass her, or didn’t like Yugito teasing her as such, and wanted to lessen that, “I-I’m j-just… just…”

The slightly older girl raised her closest hand and put it on his feathery white head, rubbing slightly with a small smile, “It’s okay,” she appreciated his effort, honestly, the boy was so earnest even if he was so young, just seeming to naturally want to make things better or easier for those around him. A part of Yorihi wondered if her Teacher was like that as a kid… but the thought of Kemui-sama as a ‘kid’ always seemed to bring a simultaneous smirk and shudder to her, she could never image those steely eyes looking so lost and helpless, or trying so hard when she was already so amazing at everything. – _Then again…_ \- she smiled down at the boy as he blushed in embarrassment – _Perhaps this is how Kemui-sama was with Father… a long time ago?_ -

Underneath all the blushing the little boy _was_ trying his hardest not to smile too openly, mother would not approve of being so obvious.

The little scene garnered a chuckle from Yugito, while Xiao just looked on with a raised brow, not used to this… _softer_ side to the strange girl she’d come accustomed to.

Oku on the other hand, he grinned openly, glad to see everything back to normal before turning back to his task, “It’s good to see her happy like that, don’t you agree Lior?” the badger hanging off his shoulder just seemed to hiss, tired of being here long ago.

Red eyes glanced back to the boy on the scaffold hearing that familiar hiss from his ruffled badger. For a moment the older girl crossed her arms, staring at her potential partner, then quickly shook whatever thoughts away, “Hey, you almost done Oku?”

“Almost!!” he called back without looking, just knowing the others were looking his way.

That cat-who-ate-the-canary grin spread on Yugito’s lips as she leaned on the chain of the bridge, “in such a hurry?”

Immediately that thuggish pout was back as red eyes glared _lightly_ at the older woman, “We’re not getting paid for this job,” there may or may not have been a side glare at a certain blind girl, “…and there’s still others we could do today if we hurry…”

A blonde brow rose on the older woman, “Such high priorities, huh?” a smirk as she shook her head making her twin-pony-tail seem like a certain cat’s swaying tail, “I like that in genin… always moving ahead, pushing forward, on to the next thing!”

Red eyes stared flatly, before turning to the younger girl, “Is she mocking us?”

Yorihi’s tattooed brows rose sympathetically in the middle, “That’s…” a small unconvincing chuckle as her free hand scratched the side of her face, “Just how Nee-chan is…”

Certain cat-women may or may not have stumbled off the bridge’s chain.

Xiao just turned to look at the older woman with that serious frown, “We’re not genin yet,” dark arms crossed, “but the quicker we fill our quota, the more experience we get, the better chances we have…” for a moment it seemed like Xiao was chewing on a word thinking it over before frowning and looking to the side, “… ma’am.” Don’t let it be said her brother didn’t try to teach her manners!

 Yugito smoothly righted herself, wiping off one of her shoulders as if there were dust, “I’m not old enough to be called _ma’am_ , girl,” the flat look that came over the feline woman’s face made it hard to tell if she were truly offended or not.

The two ‘older’ females stared flatly at each other, causing the younger to raise her hand to try and cover up the urge to laugh, “She’s only being respectful Nee-chan…” red eyes turned to the blind girl flatly, ignoring the fact she wasn’t _supposed_ to be able to see them…

The cat on the other hand, with her iron-black eyes, had a growing smirk towards her niece, “This is what I get for you not introducing me properly,” she tapped her hand on the large bridge chain before strolling over towards Yorihi, reaching out lazily and rubbing the wispy cat on her shoulders as he languidly nuzzled up to her hand affectionately. Yugito had an earnest smile on her lips as her hand moved from the feline to rub her niece’s hair much more roughly, “Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing today,” when the hand finally left Yorihi’s ruffled hair, the younger girl frowning openly, she turned to the white haired boy tugging on the girl’s shirt, “C’mon Su-kun, Aneue and I got training to do,” she leaned down and winked at him, holding out her hand, “and I’m sure you wanna watch, hm?”

The way the boy’s face brighten was endearing as he took the older woman’s hand, finally letting go of his big sister’s shirt, “Mm,” the two took a few steps away before the white haired boy turned back with that cute unsure look on his face, “Y-Yorihi-sama… Bachi-chan…” he gave a small unsure wave.

An earnest smile crept on the ‘blind’ girl’s lips as her finicky feline companion stared with his unwavering vibrant blue eyes. Yorihi just raised her hand, enjoying the way the boy smiled more openly before trotting off with the older blonde woman, who happened to throw a knowing smirk over her shoulder before turning the way she was going, waving a lazy hand over her shoulder.

“Seriously,” a stern voice came up to Yorihi’s right, “That woman’s your aunt?”

Without moving her head Yorihi could see the incredulous look that obviously crossed Xiao’s face as the older girl walked up next to her, arms crossed, and obviously not believing whatever was said.

Yorihi gave the only response appropriate, she shrugged.

A small shake of the bridge told them Oku had hopped back on away from the scaffold, apparently done with fixing the building. The boy leaned over wiping the wrinkles off his pants, Lior taking the moment to hop off his shoulder and pace about unhappy. Xiao was the first to turn slightly, watching her would-be-partner with an unreadable expression in her red eyes. Then the boy righted himself, his badger trotting behind him as he walked towards his female comrades, that silly smile on his face garnering that familiar flat look on the older girl’s darker features.

Yorihi just smirked to herself, watching the seemingly unobserved exchange without turning her head.

“Xiao-chan!!” Oku nearly skipped towards the slightly taller girl, “I can’t believe you got away with talking to a jounin like that!!”

“Pfft,” red eyes rolled, waving a hand at the boy, “She’s just the Princess’ aunt…” there was a look in her eyes as she turned towards Yorihi that told just how much she believed that, “Not like the woman’s anything special…” a dusky-pink brow rose skeptically, “right?”

Again, another mild shrug from the ‘blind’ girl, “Not really,” Xiao made a wave of her hand as if to say ‘see’ to Oku, “Unless you count the fact she’s a Jinchuuriki for the Nibi…”

Everything was suddenly eerily silent… as both Xiao and Oku stiffened, twitched, and turned incredulous eyes on the blind girl.

To say Yorihi could just _feel_ their eyes staring at her was like saying rain was wet, she physically shook under the scrutiny, “What?”

Their mouths opened but nothing came out, the two just too stunned to say anything…

Well, almost…

“We really should have been more respectful!!” for whatever reason Oku had both hands up in fists, apparently _very_ serious about this respect thing, “If she is a barer of a bijuu she’s a living hero!!”

Two sets of brows went up staring at the boy.

Sea foam green eyes just blinked at the girls, “What?” they just tilted their heads at him causing a pout to form on his pale lips, “Don’t you know about the bijuu?”

- _More than you think_ \- was the first thing to pop into Yorihi’s head as a minor shiver may or may not have run down her spine remembering that black world with the Nibi…

A frown just formed on Xiao’s dark features as the girl crossed her arms, “I don’t believe you,” it was weird that she said that but was facing Oku, “If she was really a Jinchuuriki, shouldn’t she have had insane amounts of chakra pouring out of her from the demon?”

The boy made a silly pout, still clinching his fists up near chin level, “It doesn’t work like that!!” that lower lip came out increasing the pout’s effectiveness… Yorihi may or may not have blushed a bit, but neither of the two noticed as they were staring more at each other, “The Bijuu are chakra entities of creation!! Gifts to this world from the old one, meant to help and protect us, bearers are heroes worthy of our respect!!”

Again that dusky-pink brow rose incredulous, “Says you,” red eyes may have rolled a bit, “I’ve never heard anything like that, only that they’re demons sealed away as they cause rampant destruction on their own, thus shinobi seeking their power,” Xiao made a fist holding it out, “The strong deserve such power, that’s we have the Hachibi,” it was at this point she finally turned to Yorihi, looking at the blind girl skeptically, “But I have a hard time believing that small woman holds another one, let alone the  Nibi…”

A pout may or may not have passed on Yorihi’s lips, shrugging again, “Believe what you want, Nee-chan is the Nibi’s container same as Oji-chan is the Hachibi container,” a more serious tone entered her voice as she faced the older girl, brows lower, “But don’t insult either of them where I can hear again, they’re both strong, and as Oku-kun said, deserve our respect.”

A shrug and vigorous nod were the younger girl’s response.

“Of course Yorihi-Hime!!” again with the fist-pumping from the boy as his badger literally clawed its way back onto his shoulder, seemingly not even bothering him, “I shall give great respect to ones such as… as…” blonde brows furrowed under the boy’s silly hat as Lior finally found his way into the knapsack on the boy’s back, settling in while his owner seemed to fumble with his words, “Huh…” that’s when that squinty looking face turned to the younger girl, “What are their names, you never did introduce us?”

There was a definite sigh from the Raikage’s daughter, “Oji-chan is ‘Killer Bee’ as everyone knows,” she nudged her head in the direction the blonde woman and white-haired boy had gone, “But you both just met Nii Yugito… my… ‘Aunt’ of sorts?” her tattooed brows quirked, still not sure how to work all that out.

Red eyes gave the younger girl an incredulous look as Xiao moved her hands to behind her head, obviously bored they were still talking about that weird woman.

Oku on the other hand just seemed to anxiously grin; “GREAT!!” he shouted causing both girls to jump slightly, “I’ll be sure to send them both something as a means of gratitude for their great service!!”

Dusky-pink and cyan-tattooed brows just quirked, both obviously blinking at the boy and wondering what the hell just came over him.

“Oku…?” Xiao questioned skeptically.

Yorihi merely tilted her head, not thinking either of her family members would know what to do with any kind of ‘gift’ the boy gave them… let alone ‘why’? – _Oji-chan and Nee-chan just do what they do… I doubt Nibi-sama or Hachibi-sama really do all that much?_ \- she had no idea, not really having much of a conversation with either about their demons despite all the time she’d spent with them or what had happened years ago. If she ever wanted to know anything about ‘demons’ she could just ask Bachiko and he may answer or just snort at her like it was silly.

“Hmm?” the boy was grinning weirdly, turning towards his potential partner as both her and their classmate seemed highly confused by his exclamation.

That’s when Xiao just shook her head with a slight sigh, “Ya know what? Nevermind…” the boy was grinning again, that silly stupid grin that ruffled her in such a way as to make her skin crawl. The aspiring medic just scowled at the grinning boy, “Would you just stop that!!”

“What?!” he jovially pouted, “I’m not doing anything,” he turned to the smaller girl, his eyes seemingly closed from his smirking, “Right, Yorihi-hime?”

Yorihi tried not rolling her eyes, or make it not obvious, but the way Xiao scowled at her and Oku’s grin widening told her that had failed. Instead she turned around towards the way her ‘aunt’ and ‘little brother’ had gone, “Don’t we have more missions to do?” Bachiko was snickering on her shoulders, something about obvious nonchalance… she told him to shut it or else he’d be spending extra time with Sutego. The feline immediately deflated, glaring at his master as if to say that was a low blow…

\-----

Steely eyes glanced at the clock on the wall for the fifth time in the last hour.

Mabui knew, as she’d been counting every time her sensei took the minute second to do it.

It was a rare day indeed that the normally so calm white haired woman was antsy enough to watch the clock. The cute 17 year old had refrained from asking the woman out of respect… and not wanting to point it out to her, it was rare enough the teen managed to catch the woman doing something remotely _human_ outside that evil desk-clerk’s apartment. Currently the grey haired girl was sitting at her desk running through the ‘normal’ piles of paperwork she had confiscated from the Raikage’s desk; she’d learned pretty quickly that the less that man saw the less likely she was to get yelled at about doing it. Joshu, the head of Admin. and apparently her predecessor, made great complaints about stacks of papers miles high and the tempers of Oni along with rampant destruction of furniture. Mabui had so far been exposed to more the later than the former, feeling it was because her vigilance of keeping the bane at bay. The Last Assassin’s silence as the older woman went through her own files for whatever project she was doing was enough of an ‘approval’ for Mabui to continue her studious work, even if it meant later days then she would have liked, at least it wasn’t all at once.

… that was the sixth time those steely grey eyes glanced at the clock.

A grey brow rose as the younger woman propped her chin on her hand, looking directly at her sensei rather obviously with flat blue-green eyes.

“You’re staring,” the woman’s cold voice spoke out as she closed a file and moved on to another.

“I know,” Mabui was _not_ smirking cheekily, “Just wondering who it is?”

A white brow quirked but the older woman didn’t move her head from the file, “Who is what?”

“You’re date!” now the teen was giving a big toothy grin, it was a shot in the dark she was sure was wrong but watching as the last assassin seemed to still a moment, slowly rise to sitting up straight and those flat steely eyes turning on her were worth it. Catching the woman off guard was such a rare thing.

“My what?” a white brow did not rise and her voice did not shift above flat, but Mabui just _knew_ she’d caught the woman off guard.

The smirk on the teen grew, “You keep looking at the clock,” she tilted her head cutely, teasing the older woman, “Almost like you’re expecting someone to come walking through that door to sweep you off your feet~”

Another flat look before the white haired woman turned back to her work, “You have an overactive imagination Mabui-chan…”

That response didn’t remove the smirk from the teen’s face. If anything it encouraged the grey-haired girl’s imagination more. – _Who would Sensei be eager to see?_ \- that decidedly gossipy side of her mind wanted to _immediately_ say the Raikage, but after spending months in both high ranking shinobi’s presence even she was confused by the complex _lack_ of communication between the two. He’d grunt, she’d nod, and off they went. On more than one occasion Mabui would just stare blankly during such an exchange while mentally ripping her hair out. So with the big lug that was her over-boss marked off the list who else did that leave?

Her smirking toned down just enough to give her sensei a long blue-green side glance. The woman was as still as normal, but nearly two years with the woman had taught the younger teen how to read her micro-expressions. The white haired assassin was pointedly **_not_** looking at the clock, meaning she was, so whoever her caller was, was obviously still on her mind. At the _blatant_ clock-watching Mabui propped her head on her hand again, flatly staring at her superior, “Just go.”

Grey eyes glanced at her for all of a moment.

The cute pout spread on the younger woman’s face, “if it’s that important just go, I’ll handle your work…” she didn’t _really_ want to do it, but usually Kemui’s paperwork was more… _interesting_ then whatever she snatched from the Raikage’s desk. That and watching the woman being fidgety, as much as she got, was starting to freak her out. Mabui expected the older woman to deny it anyway; she almost never allowed others to do her work for her…

A deep sigh, for Kemui, was her response, causing Mabui to raise a grey brow, “Alright…”

That brow went up higher as the girl gave a stunned blink.

Those normally so-threatening grey eyes opened cloudy as the older woman stared at her student for a good long moment, seemingly deciding something important before standing up, grabbing her stack of files, walking around her desk and setting them on Mabui’s. The cute girl just blinked owlishly, obviously surprised as her blue-green eyes went from the stack to the older woman several times, too confused to voice her question.  A pleasant barely-there smile rose on the older woman’s lips as she looked down at the young woman, “look through these and select the best candidates…”

The surprise grew on the girl’s face, mixed with something yearning, skeptical and not wanting to seem too eager but there nonetheless. Those blue-green eyes went to the stack, pulling off the top one and upon opening it and finding a list of shinobi candidates, “What are the specifics of the mission you want them to perform?” just glancing over this first list showed many younger genin with various capabilities, all high scores in several areas.

“One of them will become Yorihi’s partner,” pale fingers trailed over the top of the second folder as the older woman could feel the teen still and slowly stare up at her. Grey eyes remained down as she tapped a finger along the edge of the manila folder, “These are the candidates R&D has… _approved_ of, from the data they’ve received.”

Mabui could tell by the flat way the pale woman was blankly staring at the folders that there was something unsaid. It wasn’t strange for R&D to be involved with the deciding of ‘partners’, they had the genetic information and scores of every person in the village, someone crazy among their ranks was good at determining interactions between people and the potential of combination compatibility among up and coming students. It also wasn’t uncommon among surviving partners to become involved romantically, so many of the older members of the shinobi forces were convinced half the reason R&D had such input in the decision of partners for genin was because they were running a breeding program, not that anyone could find proof without questioning R&D directly. The various times Mabui had to exchange files and information with the people there lead her to believe there was some validity to that rumor, the people there were weird enough to not see anyone outside as more than test subjects, so she certainly wouldn’t put it past them.

But the system worked, in a way, the pairs that survived were stronger than most teams other villages set up, even the four and five man cells from Iwa, and those that didn’t the surviving partner was often driven to great potential because of the death of the partner they lost. Though Mabui knew the system wasn’t ‘perfect’, no one, no matter how insanely smart they were could predict everything. Her first partner had wanted her to try teleporting him to their enemies, she’d initially refused, but in her youth she was more susceptible to others and eventually agreed to try it out… he’s lost a leg and never trusted her afterwards, resulting in the absolute failure of their partnership. Not that she cared, he went on to join Company P and she joined a makeshift team in Company O, which lead her to her current position.

Blue-green eyes stared at the stack, she could tell by her sensei’s tone the woman had been at this task for far too long. Whoever she was looking for to be Yorihi’s partner wasn’t here. – _Or maybe she’s just stalling…_ \- said the side of Mabui’s mind she could not help but admit may have been influenced by those friends of hers over at Company S; if anyone had snarky gossip or some ill-gotten rumor started, you could almost bet for sure it started with Company S. Mabui gave a mental sigh, letting the _evil_ thought loose. – _What mother wants to decide her daughter’s future husband at age 11?_ -

The odd look that came over Mabui’s face as the younger woman seemed to be thinking deeply caused a white brow to rise.

Then the junior woman seemed to shake, mentally slapping herself out of salacious gossip, before pumping her fists and getting ready for her task at hand, “Alright!!” the cuteness may have been cranked up with the girl’s enthusiasm as she glanced at her sensei with bright eyes, “Don’t worry Kemui-sensei!! I’ll find the right partner for Yorihi-senpai!!”

That white brow remained up, if the look on her face became a bit more relaxed, amused even as the woman crossed her arms over her vest, “I’m surprised you’re still willing to call her that.”

A bit of an embarrassed blush may have passed over the teen’s face as she reopened that file in her hand, “Senpai was _technically_ right… she trained under you first, it’s only right…” as her mind added - _… And with the amount of reports I have to file due to ‘environmental damage’ she causes it might be best to stay on her good side…_ \- a shudder may or may not have crossed the younger woman’s shoulders at the thought.

That ‘amused’ look on Kemui’s face seemed to spread as the shorter woman turned to leave.

“Oh, Kemui-sensei!!” the white haired woman turned as Mabui propped herself over her desk, “Is it okay if I look into some candidates that aren’t on this list?”

That white brow rose again as the assassin gave it a moment of thought, smirking lightly before giving her answer, “I trust you to find someone qualified to help Lord Raikage’s daughter become the best she is capable of…”

Mabui absolutely beamed at the normally so dismissive woman’s approval… she may or may not have jumped up with a squeal.

This of course caused Kemui to just shake her head at the teen’s excitability, “You have a week, I expect adequate results by then,” the assassin threw over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.

“Of course Sensei!!” Mabui dropped back into her seat with a childish smirk. The grey haired teen wasn’t stupid; this was a great opportunity for her to prove just how well she’d learned under the assassin’s tutelage. Sure, she hadn’t learned anything particular about _killing_ people, expect maybe one or two ‘self-defense’ training days that may still haunt her dreams, but she did learn greatly about information gathering and how to _really_ use it. She’d been using these skills to get through her paperwork quickly, efficiently and spotting problems that may occur due to some probable tampering. Little things she was sure the assassin could have done in her sleep.

No! Now she had the opportunity to put her knowledge of the Shinobi Forces to the test. – _Finding someone for Yorihi, huh…_ \- skimming the first couple candidates offered by R&D she started to get a picture of what the shadowy scientific organization was looking for in a potential partner; someone with high reserves, strong combat skills, higher than normal potential… but there was little about the actual ins and outs of these kids, their likes, dislikes, what drove them to serve? Stuff like that…

Thinking back to her own short partnership and the teams she got along with later in Company O, Mabui knew there were other factors to think about. Thanks to her training under Kumo’s ‘Last Assassin’ she knew that a lot of those little things come down to quirks of personality. She needed research, something beyond what these files could tell her…

A cute smirk crossed the young woman’s face, “And I think I know where to start…” setting the files down she glanced at the clock. – _They should be finishing up by now…_ \- the smirk would just _not_ leave her face as she swiftly hopped over the desk, strutting out the door to the small office, closing and locking the door and trying hard to not skip down the hall. Dark tan hands went behind her back as she may have given a hop or two, another Admin. Shinobi giving her a strange look she ignored before chuckling to herself, “Whenever you need to know something about anyone… there’s only _one_ place to go…”

\------

“Haa… haa….” Heart pounding accenting the labored breathing, sweat crawling down her forehead and neck as she had to close her eyes from oddly clear sky being far too bright…

“Kaa-san!!” small but determined footstep sped towards the downed woman as she hesitantly propped herself up against the rocky outcropping.

“Don’t!” It was a struggle to raise her hand, every movement felt like fire but years of ignoring such pain allowed her to do so, halting her son several feet from her. She could still feel it, the unsettling unease, the feel of her body not being her own. There was no telling what she may or may not do in her struggling condition, “Stay… haa… stay back…” her hand fell without effort as she leaned her head back, closing her eyes, feeling a burn like ice in her left one as she did everything in her power to keep her breathing down.

“You lasted longer this time…” the downed woman’s fake grey eye dared to open, it was less likely to react to the image of Yugito, standing above her looking down with arms crossed and copper eyes, “Matatabi gives her condolences…” the last remnants of sharpened feline features and dark chakra left the younger blonde woman’s presence even if her eyes still held that coppery color, “She never expected one of you to try something as insane as this…”

Keeping her left eye closed the white haired woman managed to get her breathing down lower, still heavy by her standards, “Years…” her head lulled forward as she suppressed the pain like fire in her veins, “almost two years… and this is all I can manage…”

Yugito crouched down closer to the woman, obvious concern furrowing between her eyebrows, “Aneue,” that lone grey glared at her, the woman was far more open when on the verge of death and even after all this time training with her there was something about the elder Assassin that would never let Yugito forget she was deadly. Beaten, broken and not a shred of chakra to spare and she still gave off the impression she’d take down a Bijuu. A frown spread on the blonde’s pale lips, “Don’t give me that look…” she hissed, “it’s amazing enough you can do this at all… people normally **_die_** from over exposure to chakra like this…”

That fake eye just stared a moment more before closing as the elder woman seemed to finally concede.

The frown didn’t leave the feline Jinchuuriki as she made sure the woman wasn’t burning to death from their training before turning and looking over her shoulder, “Su-kun!!” and waved the small boy over.

The obedient little white haired boy seemed to jump at the call, dashing immediately over to the two women holding out a towel and bottle of water to them, not sure if he should be handing it to his mother directly or the blonde that watched him occasionally, “H-here!”

“Thanks!” Yugito was the one to thank the boy, grabbing the offered items and rub him on the head. She always found it cute that while most people found such a thing offensive the little white haired boy would just blush and try not to smile too obviously, she wondered if he was just happy to be helpful.

With a quick nod the young boy just took a step back, wringing his hands in obvious worry and unsure what to do or say as the older blonde took care of his mother like always. This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten to watch the two train, he was too young to fully understand the implications of their sparring but what he did know is that it drained his mother far quicker than the blonde. Yugito could always seem to go on for days with that blackish aura, while his mother’s white one burned brightly in response she never seemed to last as long or do as much damage as the blonde. Some part of him wished he understood it better; his mother was the best assassin there was… why did she never win?

“Aneue, here,” the blonde handed over the towel after drenching it some with the cooler water, allowing the assassin the dignity to take it herself even if moving probably hurt. – _As long as I’ve known you, you always take everything on yourself. If its within your power you’ll do it yourself no matter how much it hurts…_ \- once-again-iron-black eyes watched as the pale woman reached out, grabbing the offered wet towel and slung it around the back of her neck, releasing a great sigh as if that answered all her problems. A smirk picked at the edge of the younger woman’s lips as she wordlessly offered what was left in the bottle of water.

Kemui’s half-opened grey eyes just stared at the offering a moment before taking and graciously drinking, by this point her body seemed to have fully calmed now that both their chakra was back to normal. After consuming two-thirds of what remained she sat back with a content sigh, eyes closed and taking a moment to just breathe normally.

Yugito just seemed to grin before pushing up on her knees and standing, looking down at the white haired woman, a bit of a smirk probably playing at her lips, “food?”

The grey eye closest to blonde peaked open, the white brow above it perhaps rising a bit at the inquiry.

A Cheshire grin spread on the feline Jinchuuriki’s face, “I’m sure if we hurry we can catch that one seafood place before the stall closes up…”

The grey eyes closed and maybe a bit of a frown followed, “it’s not that late…”

The Cheshire grin spread, “No, but with how slow you’re going to be moving it might as well be~”

Both grey eyes opened enough to glare at the cat…

Only to find a pale hand offered down to her, “C’mon Aneue…” blonde brow piqued in a bit of challenge, “Even you can’t say no to food after training…”

Those steely eyes never lost their mild glare, but the older woman took the younger’s offered hand and stood to her feet, sighing lightly as she adjusted the towel around her neck, “You really shouldn’t call me that…”

That grin on the blonde’s face became even more catlike, “Why not?” there was a bit of a giggle at the steely gaze sent her way, which she easily brushed aside, “Even you have to admit you’re like the ‘big sister’ around here,” a pale hand waved about as she started walking out of the training area, “the Raikage’s our ‘boss’, and Senpai’s everyone’s ‘Big Brother’,” she chuckled sinisterly, turning back enough to see the older woman still glaring, “Its only right you’re our ‘Big Sister’, Aneue~”

A bit of a scowl may or may not have picked at the older woman’s face as she absently started forward, drawing her son towards her to follow, “And _I_ know that’s not why you call me that…” cloudy grey eyes stared forward as she didn’t realize she’d placed her hand on her son’s head affectionately, guiding him along with them, “It’s dangerous… to keep treading that line…”

Yugito glanced back at the woman over her shoulder, noticing the slightly unfocused look in those normally so sharp grey eyes. She gave something of a huff, snorting through her nose, probably something she’d picked up from Matatabi, “And you need to realize you’re not the same person anyone,” she waved a pale hand flippantly, tip-toeing around this subject had always rubbed her the wrong way, “I don’t understand why you’re still so bound by all those rules of dead men anyway…”

Oddly a pleasant look came over the older woman’s face, and even if Yugito couldn’t see it as she was facing forward she could hear it in the tone of the pale woman’s voice, “Because I’m the only one that lives…” a small sigh, “the only that remembers…”

A pout formed on the cat-woman’s face, not that she was going to show her ‘big sister’ anyway, “Then just let it go… no one has to remember that stuff anyway…”

Grey eyes gained a bit of a spark in them, glancing at the back of the blonde’s head… before looking down at her own son who’d taken hold of her skirt, staring up at her with those foreign black eyes with her own pale hand in his white hair. She could tell by the look on his face he didn’t understand, and part of her, a growing part, wished he never did understand what it meant, especially towards him. She rubbed his feathery white hair lightly; something of a smile picking at the edge of her own lips, “Maybe…” her voice was low as she looked again, “… but not today.”

Yugito raised her arms to support her head, hopefully hiding the smirk rising on her face, “Soo… Aneue?” she turned gracefully on her toe, now walking backwards with a Cheshire grin facing that woman’s glaring steely eyes at the continued use of the name, “Gotten anywhere with that _mission_ of yours?”

A white brow rose, “And how do you know about that?”

A chuckle from the blonde, honest and endearing, “it’s not that hard really,” the smile on her face was childlike, something amused but oddly not snide, “Raikage-sama’s too lazy to find someone himself and you’re too nitpicky to trust someone else to do it,” another chuckle as the glare became flatter, “Besides I don’t think he’d trust anyone else to find someone to work with his precious daughter~”

Flat eyes continued to stare, “He didn’t _assign_ anything,” her eyes closed as she folded her arms over her vest, Yugito recognizing it as probably the closes the woman got to pouting, “I merely wanted to inspect R &D’s research into who would be an acceptable match…”

Now it was Yugito’s turn to stare flatly at the older woman, even if the smirk didn’t leave her face, “Sure you did,” there was a hissing-chuckle as those grey eyes threatened the cat, “So how many were _acceptable_?”

A pale finger tapped along the woman’s armguard. If Yugito didn’t know any better the assassin just fidgeted, “I hadn’t decided on any…”

A certain blonde feline-like woman may or may not have stumbled on a rock behind her…

“Haven’t decided on…” Yugito righted herself, pulling her hands up in furious fists, “She graduates in less than a month and **_no one’s_** decided on her partner yet!!”

Conveniently grey eyes were looking anywhere _but_ the fuming cat-woman.

Iron-black eyes twitched, “Why haven’t you…?” the blonde seemed to twitch, her mind not making sense of the information presented to her, “You **_never_** fail a mission!!”

Steely daggers were on the cat, and if Yugito’s eyes weren’t messing with her the white towel around Kemui’s neck made her look like a large white wolf with its fur on end, “It _wasn’t_ a mission.” Now it was the assassin’s turn to huff, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, “I couldn’t decide because none of the R &D candidates seemed… right,” there was a ruffle along her shoulders.

Yugito lowered her hands, looking the woman over more seriously, “You want to just go back to training her by yourself again, don’t you?

Grey eyes simply stared at the ground ahead of her.

Blonde brows lowered slightly as Yugito’s lips pursed into a straight line, “Then why don’t you?” her and Bee wanted nothing more than to take their adorable little niece under their collective wing and train her themselves, but it was always the assassin and the Raikage that stood between the Jinchuuriki and that dream like they had some master plan all along. Hell, Yugito could probably accept if Kemui, the woman that _originally_ trained the young girl first just went back to teaching her over the idea that someone else, some random sensei based on their student would get to instead of her family. – _Like we should be…_ -

“Because it would be too easy…” the woman’s words were crisp and clear, and the moment she pulled her head up and looked the feline Jinchuuriki right in the eye Yugito understood. Kemui herself didn’t want to, the older woman felt like her and Bee, but forced herself because she knew… knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. Unconsciously the assassin shakes her head, “We know how she thinks, how she acts, we’ve trained her and know how to get the best out of her…” cloudy eyes scan the ground, the words aren’t difficult to say, just harder to accept then she was willing to admit, “If we continued to train her in a bubble she would become powerful, yes, but stunted in areas she will need later on in life…”

“She needs to be pushed outside her comfort zone huh?” the smirk rises on Yugito’s pale face easily. She could understand the older woman completely, “So if you’re not choosing who is?”

A light smile picked at the edge of the white haired woman’s lips, “Mabui,” the stunned look that comes over the blonde’s face is priceless, Kemui knowing if she were more expressive like the younger Jinchuuriki she’d probably laugh, as it was Sutego had to cover his own mouth, futilely covering his giggles. A smirk may or may not have piqued on the assassin’s calm face, “A fresh set of eyes never hurts…”

A scowl came over the blonde, “That’s just weird…”

For some reason a light barely-there smile came over Kemui, “I’m honestly surprised myself,” if the woman were more expressive she may have chuckled, glancing down and moving her hand, cuing for Sutego to take it, “She offered, and since I had been making no progress, I had no reason to refuse…”

Thoughtfully iron-black eyes watched the woman, it wasn’t often she openly showed her son such affection, even when it was just them, she was always so guarded. That reclusive nature, keeping everyone at a distance, separated by something unseen but wholly felt was something Yugito easily attributed to the woman. yet… in the past ten minutes she’d come painfully close to the woman admitting something she’d been questioning since Matatabi shared her memories with her, openly accepting her son affectionately, and just admitted to letting her other student take over work she had willingly been neglecting over a personal conflict. Something was definitely different about the assassin now than the one she remembered years ago and it was strange to the blonde that she was only bothering to notice now. Her eyes squinted slightly, watching the woman, trying to see if there was any deceit… if it was there, she’d need someone more experienced than her to find it, “You, delegating such an important task to someone else?” her eyes closed as she gained the look of a suspicious cat, “Seems suspicious…”

The assassin gave her a look that only Kemui could give… even if there was an oddly out of place smirk accompanying it.

Yugito openly pouted, “Still think you should just let Bee and I take a crack at her…”

The white haired woman shook her head, seeming to simply walk past the still Jinchuuriki before doing something neither of them expected. Kemui raised her hand closest to Yugito and flicked her in the ear, garnering a smirk from the older woman as she remembered she used to do that to another blonde in another life when he said something repetitive he shouldn’t have.

“Ah-Ow!!” the blonde literally jumped a foot away, hissing may have been involved.

Kemui simply looked back at the younger woman, a _slight_ smirk on her lips, “Didn’t you say something about food?” grumbling was her only response as the two dogs continued to leave the training area, a miffed cat scowling in their wake.

\-----

The night was cold and cloudy, a prelude to the stormy weather sure to come as winter moved along at its normal pace. Part of Kemui wondered as her grey eyes watched the cloudy sky if this year’s cold would last longer than last. Kumo was always relatively cold, being so high up in the mountains that it literally sat in the ever present clouds of the Demon’s Ridge Mountains. The people that lived here barely noticed, hot-blooded and so full of energy, winter barely affected the shinobi with its more biting winds then summer did with its more constant rains.

The assassin simply leaned on the railing of one of the platforms attached to the Raikage’s tower, staring at nothing.

“You’re a lot harder to find then you should be,” a gruff deep voice called out from behind the white woman, bringing a small prick of a smirk to her lips as she easily recognized the voice as her Lord’s. The large imposing Oni of a man walked up on her left side, arms crossed and scowling as usual.

She tried to abandon the smirk but it may have slipped into her voice, “If I wasn’t I wouldn’t be very good at my job…”

An annoyed ‘hrmph’ accented the large man’s gruff voice, “It’s annoying to go looking for you, only to realize you’re not in your room…” an uncomfortable shrug passed his shoulders that neither mentioned, “only making me feel more foolish when I look out a window and see this unmistakable white hair standing outside…”

The smirk downgraded to a bit of a soft smile, teasing, “I do have obligations…”

The scowl quite obviously became a pout, “Just annoying,” another ruffle of his shoulders, a bit more obvious this time, “can’t just walk down the hall into your room…”

The wind suddenly didn’t seem so cold, as the woman leaned a bit more on her arm, ignoring the man’s look, “That would be inappropriate, Lord Raikage~” she wasn’t smirking, Kemui did not smirk.

Beady black eyes glared at the woman’s white hair, grumbling as his shoulders ruffled, again.

The woman that _looked_ like a certain assassin definitely smirked at the large Oni’s pouting.

“So what’dya want?” a bit of a growl accompanied his mighty huff.

And like that the game was over, the smirk dropping from the woman’s pale face as if never there, a placid look replacing it as she stood straighter, “I want to go back on active duty.”

The platform was silent, not even the wind blew.

With a slight shift the woman turned steely grey eyes on the large blonde Oni, looking him directly in the eye with all the seriousness that frightened most people in her presence, “I am done teaching Shinobi, it is time I returned to my purpose.”

A look passed over the large man’s dark features, it wasn’t shock, hurt, or any other kind of recognizable emotion, if anything it was just stern, the mask of a leader, “What makes you think you are done teaching?” there was a hidden question they both knew he was asking but neither said out loud. – _What makes you think you’re ready to go back out there?_ -

The steel in her eyes did not waiver, did not falter, did not soften or become hot with anger. She stared at him just as sternly as he stared back, “Mabui will chose Yorihi’s partner because I could not,” despite her flat voice the older woman felt pride for her subordinate, finding applicants that even she could not say ‘no’ to along with detailed explanations of why and how she found them. The final decision was obviously hers, but even Kemui could not deny the girl had already done excellent work.

Her eyes narrowed more, “Seichi and Jimei have been catching more potential spies then I’ve bothered to look for, with help from those I have taught in ANBU and even some of the lower forces.” Her original subordinates had been taking over her initial counter-espionage duties since she had been busy with her duties as a teacher and her son. They had too had done excellent with what she had taught them, well enough to teach others they worked with and ensuring the security of the village when it was not her duty.

Her pale hands gripped the evening kimono tightly around her upper arms as she continued, “My son has learned to fend for himself, all I am willing to teach him now,” the last part came out significantly lower as for only an instant her steel-like gaze left her Lord, causing the man’s brows to furrow, “Recently he has been learning more from watching Yugito, Mei and even Yorihi then I have bothered to teach him…” she didn’t want to say it, neither of them did, but she did not want to teach Sutego to be another assassin. Her ‘clan’, her bloodline was supposed to end with her, since she failed in that, the least she could do was not drag the boy into the insanity that was their way of doing things. He had a chance to be something else… she would give it to him. White hair shook slightly, she knew she was never meant to be a parent, no matter what her instincts forced on her, “He’s better off learning from them… even Reki if she would bother, then he is from me…”

The great Oni crossed his arms, frowning at the small woman, “Is that all?” his voice was harsh and stern, giving nothing away to what was running through his mind.

The barest of smiles picked at the woman’s lips as her gaze fell away, “I’m not needed here.”

The frown spread on the man’s distinct face, taking a deep breath that puffed up his chest as if to start yelling even if his voice barely rose at all, “You are needed here.”

Steel cut to beady black, “No,” there was a growl in her voice, low and barely audible but there nonetheless, “I am not.”

Shock passed the Raikage’s face for a barest instant, something only she would see.

Her steely gaze did not falter, nor the lower tone in her voice, “I am a relic, Lord Raikage, something kept around for your piece of mind,” if either bothered to look, the grip on her sleeve became tighter, “but a blade sheathed is a blade without purpose,” the grip tightened more obviously, sending a shake through her arm, “I **_need_** to go back out there, this,” she jutted her chin to gesture around them, “This is just a dream, a reprieve, a moment to sharpen my blunt edge,” steel looked back at him, “And I thank you for it,” her voice softened, the seriousness in her eyes remaining but in an oddly kinder tone, “But this is not what I’m here for, why I exist…”

The large man’s lips thinned, trying to form more of a pout then a frown but unable to let go of the seriousness, “And why do you exist…”

The barest of soft smiles picked at her lips, making her look like something peaceful and soft even if she was nothing like it, “I am a hunter,” those steely eyes returned to his, grey and sharp, but something non-threatening in them, “I need to be out there, killing those that threaten us, undermining those that wish to take from us, destroying villages from the inside with the barest of my presence…” the smile grew as her head lowered slightly, a forlorn look crossing her face, “I’m not meant for this domestic peaceful life…”

The look that came over the large Oni’s face was almost defeated, but the Raikage, present, past and future, never went down without a fight, ever accepted full-on defeat so long as they drew breath, “This is because Yorihi’s is graduating?”

A side of the woman’s lips tilted up as she turned towards the open, dark, cloudy skies, “Partly,” her entire stature seemed so relaxed compared to how it had been, “But mostly my own realizing I’m not supposed to be here,” her head tilted as if wanting to lean back and look at him again but refused to do so, “I’m meant to be out there, far behind enemy lines, committing acts you never knew of in order to keep this village that means so much to you, your home, safe…”

“It’s your home too,” the man said defiantly.

That barely-there smile, appreciating his words if not openly accepting them yet, “I’m a tool meant to be used, not lying around…”

A growl entered the man’s voice as a sharp frown crossed his face; it took a surprising amount of effort to keep his voice down and his hands at his side.

“Jin,” that one word cut the entire word into silent stillness, “Let me go.”

And the Raikage was defeated, by a woman that barely came up to his chest with three little words.

The large Oni’s shoulders slumped, his building aggression dissipating into the silence between them. He had known it was a fool’s dream, to think the woman would settle for a while, even get used to it and seek to stay. He knew he was lucky she stuck around this long, due to ‘obligations’ such as her son, mission, and having to train up a replacement. Excuses to keep her here long enough to rest and hopefully give up what she held onto so tightly from dead men… “Fine,” there was a finality in his voice, knowing he had set this up, taking away her reasons to stay.

A small smile graced the pale woman’s lips, “Your plan worked,” the woman that turned back to him was soft, kind, looking at him with a sincerity almost foreign, “Just not in the way you wanted…”

The pout grew on his face, realizing yet again she would always win when it came to intrigue, “Hmp, what are you talking about…”

The smile remained as she took a step closer, “I’m not the type to sit still, when I care about something I have to go out and protect it…” her chin lowered, taking those grey eyes away from his, “I can’t just hold it close and be content,” grey eyes rose, looking him directly in those beady black eyes, some undercurrent neither could put a name too, “You wanted me to care enough to stay, instead I care more…” there was barely a foot between them as the two looked at each other, “I need to go be out there, doing what only I can do to protect this…”

Large dark hands fidgeted on the large man’s upper arms, his pout obvious if more serious, “Then I’ll watch things here when you come back…”

A pleasant smile passed the woman’s lips as she closed her eyes with a small sigh, “Thank you.”

“And I’ll watch over Sutego when you’re gone,” the man’s declaration sounded almost like a bark, causing stunned grey eyes to swiftly look at him even if he’d closed his own and was facing away like a petulant child, “With Yorihi going to be off on her own missions, I’ll need to have someone to look after and help train, or I’ll go insane…” the huff was not helping him look any more serious…

Grey eyes could only blink, surprised for a moment before her head tilted down, a pale hand rising to hide her urge to _giggle_ at how childish the large man was acting, “O-of course, Lord Raikage…” she dared to look up, noticing his serious nod as if making a village-changing decision. For once the assassin could not help the honest smile, “I’m sure he’ll learn much more useful things from you then Reki and children…”

A swift firm nod from the large Oni, “Of course!” one fist came out, pumped in the air with all the seriousness of a martial declaration, “He will learn to be a true man!! Protecting this village with his dying breath!! serving the next Raikage!!”

Something sly entered the woman’s grey eyes as she turned away from the man, just to hide the growing smirk, “I’m sure he will serve her well…”

“Damn straight!!” with the smaller woman out of his immediate area, Gouzen Jinrai held his arms out, fists up and flexing mightily as his voice bellowed into the empty night.

\-----

Kouyaku – public commitment or promise, verbal promise, plaster, ointment

(Alt. Yakusoku – arrangement, promise)


	9. Dragon's Teeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kumo style Academy Graduation and Arc 4 conclusion...

_Tick… tick… tick…_

Somewhere there was a clock ticking.

Teal eyes opened, spotting the empty white ceiling he had become familiar with for the past few days. He had woken up in this bed several days ago, and every day since, but everyday felt like a haze, a dream, something that wasn’t real and he would eventually close his eyes, waking up back on the battlefield where he was supposed to be… where she would be…

There was a shift not far from him, something that caused his tan ear to twitch and his nose to instinctively breathe in the scent. Something cold and metallic, like snow on an old buried blade. The boy didn’t move, feeling for any vibrations through his hand on the mattress under the standard white hospital covers, waiting for the intruder to make a move so he could gauge their size, force and whatever intent they may have. He had had very few visitors since waking up, mostly hospital staff smelling of herbs and medicinal concoctions, his sensei who had wept tears of joy for his awakening though he was hard pressed to believe them, and that girl a few years his senior with the grey hair and cute smile. He had recognized her from taking missions from the Raikage; she had been his assistant-in-training, though now it seemed she was his full-fledged assistant, reminding him a significant amount of time had passed from that battlefield to now.

Whoever this other, new, person was stood up, smoothly with barely any effort, taking steps towards him in purposeful measure, placing their weight mostly on the outside of their feet. This was someone that walked quickly and silently, as while he didn’t hear anything aside from a shift of presence and heels on hard stone floor, he got the impression she was carrying more than she appeared. – _An Assassin…_ \- was his first thought, someone silent with confidence and weapons, of course they would want him dead.

– _You fail, you die…_ \- it had been the only thing his parents ever agreed on, a shared philosophy that was probably the basis of their entire relationship. The dark tan boy waited for the sound of a blade being drawn, for the killer to come within view… - _You fail, you die…_ -

The assassin stopped at the side of his bed, right next to his face and teal eyes shifted to look at the woman’s grey ones.

Kemui looked down at the bed-ridden boy who looked at her with the eyes of a veteran. She had waited for him to awaken so they could speak, discuss the possibility of him becoming a candidate for Yorihi’s partner. That had been the idea, until the boy opened his eyes and she watched his reactions to everything. Without moving he had an awareness of her presence, he was calm and didn’t outwardly show his knowledge, even allowing her to move closer without threat. The assassin would have thought the boy a fool and already lost his chance if it weren’t for the look in his eyes as he turned to look directly at her.

He saw death in her and did not look away.

- _He will do…_ \- the barest of smiles came to the woman’s lips as her mind made its decision, knowing she’d have to speak with Mabui further along with the Triad and finally Yorihi’s father to finalize it, but already she could tell, this boy was the one, “Kumori Uenkai,”  she spoke his name and his teal eyebrows lowered only the slightest bit, still expecting the worst, “I am called Kemui, and I have something I need to discuss with you…”

A wave of suspicion passed the boy’s eyes but he showed no sign of relief or annoyance, he would listen and take whatever this woman had to say. For now it seemed, today was not the day he was to die.

\-----

Yorihi was very annoyed.

The should-be-blind girl stood amongst the crowd of Kumo genin-hopefuls out on the training field. There were far more students than she thought taking the graduating test, apparently from other graduating classes she had no idea existed, students ranging anywhere from her age to probably 16, if not more, and they were all so loud.

“Ugh,” she rubbed her ears with the base of her palms, trying to drown out the noise. It was earlier than their normal classes, the sun hadn’t even come up over the edge of the mountain range, it was wet, cold, she could feel the moisture hanging in the air from the storm the night before and it was making her nose feel like it was going to run. She did _not_ need to get a sudden cold right now. Bachiko, annoyingly hiss-giggled in the back of her mind as he watched the crowd in his invisible form while his master indignantly growled at him, sniffling all the while.

“Shut up,” the blind girl grunted under her breath, bringing one hand up to rub her nose, hoping to get it to stop.

A hand suddenly found its way on her head, pushing her head down slightly and decidedly messing with her hair, “Good morning, Princess!!”

Yorihi’s hands gripped the handles of her top two blades tight enough to turn her knuckles white, shoulders up to her ears and _trying_ not to growl at the older girl.

Xiao just chuckled, removing her hand to put them behind her head, grinning all the while at the moody younger girl. What could the dusky-pinkette say, she was a morning person.

“M-mornin’…” a wide loud yawn, echoed by a growling one just as wide and with fangs, as both Oku and Lior walked in a sleep-like haze beside the girls, “Xiao-chan, Yorihi-hime…” the blonde pale boy was asleep on his feet, eyes shut and face droopy.

A tattooed brow only rose as a response from the blind girl.

The day’s first scowl found its way onto Xiao’s face as she walked up to the boy and slapped him across the face, hoping to wake him up more. All it did was leave a red mark and make him release a pitiful sound. Red eyes glared at him, “Wake up Oku!!” she grabbed him by the top of his shirt and the latch on his shoulder for the knapsack on his back, which Lior quickly retreated to, and shook him vigorously.

A certain ‘blind’ girl and her invisible cat sweat-dropped appropriately at the scene.

“Ahh, I just _love_ seeing you kids being so friendly in the morning~” a sly voice called over the rabble of the students.

Everything went eerily silent as they all knew that voice… and feared it equally.

Yorihi unconsciously shuddered while Xiao gripped Oku’s shirt a bit tighter then she meant, nearly strangling the boy who seemed to finally be waking up.

“Xiao let go of your partner before I fail you right now,” a much more serene, if still scary, voice called out over the crowd, which happened to split like a departing sea leaving a direct line of sight between the red eyed girl strangling her comrade and the Masters, Ruri in particular as her tiny black eyes zeroed in on the dusky-pinkette with a look that was hard to tell if she was threatening or chiding.

Xiao immediately dropped Oku, who yelped slightly as he went straight to the ground, Lior vacating the knapsack for safety.

Next to the quarreling duo Yorihi cringed slightly as the boy hit the ground rather hard, not that she turned or anything in his direction but felt bad for him… sort of.

Ruri walked down the split of students, Moe and Kuri behind her smirking threateningly or passively walking with eyes closed respectively, as the fierce looking tattooed woman approached the end, where Xiao squirmed, Oku pitifully made his way back up and Yorihi stood stock still not sure what was going to happen next. The tall woman stopped right in front of the Raikage’s daughter, arms behind her back non-threateningly as she looked down at the blind girl reading what little she could on the girl’s mostly covered face, “It is good to see you joining the rest Yorihi…”

Said girl could only gulp, “Y-yes, Ruri-sensei,” unconsciously she shook her head before trying to make herself seem taller, not that it worked very well, “Of course I’m here,” her hands gripped on her blades, “I still have to take the test like everyone else…”

A pinprick of a smile rose on the tall blonde’s lips, obscured by her tattoos, “Indeed, you do…” her small black eyes glanced back at her fellow Masters, Kuri with his eyes still closed and Moe sinisterly smirking like there was some inside joke only the psychopathic midget knew about.  The smile turned into a bit of a smirk, “Kuri…”

The chubby bald man gave the barest of nods, before stepping between the two women, taking a deep breath…

Warning bells were going off in Yorihi’s mind as she instinctively switched her eyes over to chakra sight, sensing something amiss underneath the Ninjutsu Master. What she saw made her eyes widen, her tattooed brows to rise as she took a deep breath before yelling out at the top of her lungs, “ _MOVE!!_ ”

Most of the students just looked at the small, younger girl like she was crazy, before hearing a laugh from Moe as Kuri held his arms out, palms out…

“ _Toukai no jutsu!!”_ and immediately the large man stomped down into a perfect horse stance, knees bent at ninety-degrees with his fists up and arms out, solid as a rock. A wave of chakra burst through the plateau the students were standing on, cracks spider webbed out from a circle around the Masters and proceeded to dig deep and break apart, causing the large stone pillar-like structure of the plateau to burst and collapse inward.

The single greatest fear a Kumo-nin had was falling to their death as not only was it an insulting way to die but just how easy it could happen in their home. One would think because they lived so high up they lost their fear of heights at a young age, part of this was true, it wasn’t the heights that scared anyone in Kumo, but the weightlessness of falling itself and feeling helpless to stop it as the ground rushed up at you from behind layers of clouds, never knowing which one was the last…

Yorihi, despite her enhanced senses and ability to see through everything was experiencing this in full force. A vague memory from a time she could not recall springing to life… rain, cold, weightlessness, the infinite prospect of dying… she wasn’t conscious at the time but for some reason her body remembered. It was probably the only thing that let her snap out of the trance quicker than most of the other students, “ _BACHIKO!!”_

Out of thin air the ethereal cat appeared, spinning in a flip as his body grew in size, but it wasn’t exactly his large size she needed, he couldn’t fly or anything… as far as she knew, but his rampant growth allowed for a force to spring off of as the large ghost-cat kicked her with rocket-like impact towards the one of the nearer sides of the basin. Yorihi hit with enough impact to leave a bodily imprint and she stuck on with chakra by instinct. The outer wall of the basin developed by Kuri’s technique was smooth and slick; one would actually have to have decent experience with wall-walking to latch on, simply knowing wasn’t enough. Feeling around she watched as several students, using their own means managed to get to the walls, about half of them actually stayed on them with just chakra, others digging in with blades, fists, whatever they could to make a hold. Cyan-tattooed brows furrowed. – _Is this the test?_ -

She felt as the Bakeneko returned to her presence, sticking visibly around her shoulders feeling little point to hide anymore as she scanned the surroundings. Some students were still falling, along with rocks and other debris. Some of them even trying to jump up what was coming down on them to make their way to some form of safety. A desperate murmur came to Yorihi’s heart as she watched them, wanting to reach out and grab them, help them…

The bakeneko on her shoulder growled, calling them weak and unfit if they couldn’t save themselves…

- _Should I?_ \- all of her training had been on her own, it should have been a foreign thought to help others, but something inside her… something called out to help those that were trying so hard.

Without thinking she pulled out two of her wired kunai in each hand, throwing one each into the mountainside for support before bolting down the side and out, hopping rocks to get to anyone nearby. – _Others helped me when I needed it…_ \- thoughts of Xiao smirking as she tried getting the chakra-field down, Yugito telling her a story to understand a concept, her Father picking her up when she was feeling down… - _So why shouldn’t I?_ \- in her head she could hear the voices of the Masters, chiding about how Kumo-nin stood on their own two feet, never expecting help and never asking it as the young blind girl pulled back her arm before releasing another of her wired kunai towards a student trying to find footing on a stone. – _Never said anything about how we **couldn’t** help one another…_ \- the student squeaked as a wire wrapped around them, yanking them up from the fall and tossing them towards the wall, a smirk rose on the pale girl’s face as she could see the shock in their eyes as they back flipped, catching themselves in a crouch near where she planted her kunai.

“What in th-?” the student, a boy with grayish blonde hair blinked. He’d just been thrown back by some weird girl in one of the other classes. – _The blind girl?_ \- he’d heard about her, never met her before, but definitely heard about her. No one at the Academy hadn’t heard something about this weird little girl taking the crash course, too full of herself to really talk to anyone… or so they all thought. He watched for a second as she bound from one falling rock to the next, using her wired kunai to grab and toss people that were almost below the cloud line back above it and close enough to the walls to help correct themselves.

Another girl, this one with sherbet colored hair got thrown next to him. She got up with wide eyes and holding on tight to the wall before turning and seeing his just as equally stunned face.

They both heard a wrenching of metal as the kunai at their feet started to pull from the wall.

Instinctively the grayish-blonde jumped at the one next to him, that girl helped him, no reason to not pay the blind girl back, “Grab that kunai, keep it in the wall!!” he pointed and barked as the girl nodded and did the same.

Bachiko was faster than his master, jumping off her shoulders and darting off in a series of bounces among the debris heading towards another unfortunate student, kicking them towards the wall like he had his master. The girl was a fool… these ones were either unlucky or didn’t have the skill to save themselves, yet she was interfering and helping them out… he kicked another one. It was stupid… so, so, so stupid… another… His vibrant blue eyes turned back as one of her kunai that held her to the wall seemed to finally break, and he felt her sudden fear… then relief? Vibrant blue eyes glanced up and saw two, no three, students holding on to her last tether, actually swinging her towards some others… all the bakeneko could do was blink…

Yorihi could only grin widely, as with her full-range spherical view she could see those that helped her, those she had helped, and others taking her example. She also noticed the Masters didn’t look too pleased… - _It only matters we don’t fall right? It shouldn’t matter **how** we don’t…_ \- is the thought she had at first…

Then she noticed the smirk on Moe’s pale face as the woman bit reached behind her, pulling out something that folded out into a recurve bow, and out of a seal on it she pulled a barbed arrow, knocking the thing and taking aim right at her…

Tattooed brows rose over hidden white eyes as the arrow was released… she felt a jerk, the others holding her to the wall trying to pull her out of the way, only for Moe’s real target to be revealed, the tether keeping Yorihi from falling…

The line snapped as the arrow went past, and Yorihi’s first instinct was to throw one of the others she had towards the closest surface… the central stone pillar the Masters were standing on…

Sadly the kunai didn’t dig in deep enough as it slipped out with ease, partially making Yorihi wonder if it were coated in something to prevent that or chakra… she threw another too far away to reach the wall at this point… only for it to be deflected?

A swirling object caught her attention, and her focus followed it up to its source…

Ruri was wielding a segmented spear, using its long internal chain to deflect anything that tried getting close or even tamper with other students trying to rescue others…

This wasn’t just a test… - _It’s a small scale war!!_ \- the students were literally having to fight the Masters, and the moment Yorihi realized that she felt something grab onto the back of her collar and yank her up…

“I swear,” a rough voice called above her, “You cause the biggest trouble…” red eyes looked down at the girl with a cocky smirk as Xiao dropped her on what appeared to be Zishi, the large grey and black manta-ray looking Minazuki.

Yorihi couldn’t help but blink behind her bandana before frowning openly, “I didn’t do anything!!”

Red eyes just stared unconvinced down at the girl, before having to crouch, barrel-rolling the Minazuki as Moe seemed to have found a new target…

Yorihi fell off, reaching out on instinct and actually surprised Xiao caught her before continued the barrel-roll and slingshoting the girl back toward the wall where the other students caught her…

“We got you boss!!” the boy with grayish-blonde hair said, as he and the girl with sherbet hair set the smaller girl ‘down’ relatively on the wall. Another boy with mint-green colored hair pulled out the kunai and handing them back to her…

Yorihi just blinked, translated only to the onlookers as quirking of her eyebrows. The three were grinning at her, as if expecting something…

“What’s next?” the girl asked pulling out what looked to be scimitars off her back.

“Yea,” the mint-haired boy was running some paste along his face, which Yorihi could easily feel some form of chakra in it, “How’re we going to get them back boss?”

A bit larger hand came down her shoulder and she realized it was the grayish haired boy, “What’s the plan?”

Again, Yorihi could only blink… she just wanted to help, she’d never been _in charge_ of anyone before… her mouth opened a moment as if to speak-

When something shiny and on fire whizzing towards them caught her eye…

It was an arrow, courtesy of Moe, with an exploding tag on it…

_“GET DOWN!!”_ instinctively Yorihi put her hands together, the feel of her chakra flowing through her more natural in this instance of battle than any other time she had tried to call it since leaving the caves. The three ducked around her as a chakra _bubble_ , fully formed and perfectly round _bubble,_ appeared around them deflecting the explosive off enough to be harmless before it went off.

As the smoke cleared Yorihi released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding… only for that sixth sense of incoming danger to spark again, as she turned just enough to catch what appeared to be the bladed edge of an elongated spear headed straight for her head…

Yorihi’s hands went straight for the beat rods in her back pouch, not sure if she could deflect it in time-

Only for the girl with the scimitars cut down with the blunt side of her blades, causing the segmented chain and spearhead to wrap around her blades, “Think this can get us there?” she smirked back at the blind girl.

Again, Yorihi was surprised by the students around her, but pushed it aside quickly as she caught sight of Ruri, smiling, as she dropped the spear and summoning up a chained maul, “Let it go, unless you can use it…” the blind girl stepped forward as the other removed the useless weapon from her blades, trying to get a good sense of the entire situation.

- _They brought us out here for the test…_ \- her eyes caught sight of the various ‘battles’ going on around the walls. It seemed some students were attacking others, probably under a genjutsu of Moe’s while the short woman picked off others with her bow. Ruri was throwing out weapons from who-knew-where and literally dancing around the other two preventing students from getting any kind of hold on the central pillar, and those that managed to climb up were swiftly kicked off by the Taijutsu-specialist. The only one that didn’t seem to be **_doing_** anything was Kuri, as he sat in a meditative lotus position between the two women. – _Most likely gathering chakra…_ \- in a situation like this, Kuri was the biggest threat, he had caused the collapse of the plateau, forming this bowl-like structure, and with his Ninjutsu would truly be the formidable one if he actually went on the offensive.

- _But what’s the goal?_ \- there had to be a reason for all this, not just to set the students against the Masters…

Another wave of arrows came flying their way and Yorihi quickly back flipped up the side of the wall before skidding to a halt and calling to her ‘subordinates’, “If either of you are good with genjutsu, go around to the other groups and help them break the others out of Moe’s illusions,” the mint-haired boy gave a firm nod, darting off towards the closest group, “We need to help form up something to distract the Masters and get them focused on one side…”

“I’ll get the help of some the other kids in my class,” the girl with the scimitars spoke back, deflecting arrow shots, “We’ll focus them on the opposite side!!” before darting the other way…

The boy with the grayish-blonde hair took up a position in front of Yorihi, having pulled out a pair of gauntlets that seemed to cover his entire forearms as he grabbed another chained weapon Ruri sent their way, “Whatever you plan on doing boss, get on it,” he looked back at the younger girl with a smirk, “You definitely don’t seem as bad as the other students say, by the way…” before he gathered an enormous amount of chakra into his legs and _launched_ himself off, leaving dust and a creator…

Yorihi righted herself and could see the boy, midair, beat off arrows and other weapons, only to crash into the side of the central pillar, shaking it. It gave the blind girl an idea as she noticed something like a crack forming further down near the cloud line. – _A few more hits like that and we could probably topple it… forcing them to either fall or to the walls where we can swarm them!!_ \- If the point here was a war, then all they had to do was make the Masters lose, right?

The familiar weight of her forever-companion Bachiko settled on the girl’s shoulders as she dodged and weaved through artillery and others fighting, tapping those caught in genjutsu as she passed to snap them out of it. – _I was wondering where you were!_ \- the cat grumbled something about rescuing useless people as the girl skidded and rolled down out of one of the larger students swinging a large axe, ending with enough force to kick the heavy blade off kilter enough to sling him around off balance. – _I need you to find Oku and Lior and tell them the plan…_ \- she didn’t have to look to know the ‘bored’ ghost cat was glaring at her confused as if to ask ‘what plan?’. She growled under her breathe, dodging more arrows and pulling another student out of their path. – _You are **IN** my head, just take it and go!!_ \- vibrant blue eyes rolled before the creature disappeared from her shoulders, a sudden tug on her consciousness as she could feel him searching about for the blonde boy in his silly hat.

She tried following the chaos and feel of her invisible friend until she skid past what looked to be a seal imbedded in the mountainside… and then everything went black. – _Genjutsu…_ \- she placed a pale hand on the side of the cold mountain to get her bearings from feeling, it hadn’t been that long since such blackness comforted her, now a warning that made her smirk as she felt around for the seal that had triggered the seals in her tattoos. Two fingers found the paper and with a push of chakra she burned the thing out, causing the burning above her eyes to fade and the world to come back into color.

She stood, grinning as she faced the Masters yelling, “ _THAT’S NOT GOINGTO WORK ON ME MOE-SENSEI!!_ ”

\-----

“Oh really?” the short woman smirked behind her half-moon spectacles, zeroing in on the loud girl that too easily stood out, letting loose an arrow with a multiplying seal causing it to form a veritable ‘black rain’ heading her way. The girl did that interesting ‘barrier’ thing of hers again, only it seemed she’d gotten much better at it from the last time the genjutsu Master had seen it back at her expeditionary match. – _Guess she has been working on her control some…_ \- the red-so-dark-it-was-almost-black haired woman grinned, cocking another arrow, aiming for the cocky Raikage’s daughter-

“Forget about her,” the rough voice of the tall woman on the other side of their small pillar called back as Ruri had summoned up a shield and another segmented spear, blocking lighting and earth projectiles with the shield and extending the spear to cut a veritable fissure on the other side where a large number of the students were gathering, focusing their attacks, “We need to do something to break them up on this side…”

“Tch,” the midget pouted, turning enough to let loose another batch of arrows, these ones with explosives, “You know what they’re doing, right?”

The taller woman smirked as she rolled around the shorter, blocking a lightning pebble shot from the sky, noticing Xiao wielding a slingshot riding a Minazuki and apparently leading an aerial attack with the few other students capable of flight, “Of course, it’s obvious…” she planted her spear, kneeling down to better guard as she summoned up a chain net and tossing it at the fliers, taking down two, forcing one’s bird summon to disappear and Xiao to go catch them, “But for being a motley crew never having worked together before and already using tactics is impressive for such beginners…”

A snort from the shorter woman as she released a vindictive bolt shaped like a prong that grew in size and rammed Xiao right off her damn flying manta-ray, pinning the girl to a side of the wall. Far too often had the girl messed up one of her more devious shots, it was worth putting her down, “ ‘impressive’ she says, please…” another bolt to ‘de-summon’ the damn manta-ray as she focused on sending out seals to catch some of the other fliers in genjutsu, “any genin worth their breath would figure out these kinds of tactics easy…”

A smirk from the tattooed woman as she tossed the round shield, summoning up several Scutum-type ones in a wall, ducking behind them as the students seemed to be taking a page from Moe’s book and retaliating with rampant kunai and artillery, “isn’t that what they’re _supposed_ to be proving to us?”

A deep guttural sigh from the midget as she took up a position over one of the shields, “Yes, yes, whatever…” she pinned several more students, particularly the ones that got _close_ to hitting her, they seemed to have the best aim or luck, best to put them down…

Ruri seemed to lean over to Kuri’s still form, grabbing something out of his back pouch before rolling open what appeared to be a scroll, with _hundreds_ of seals on it. The muscular tattooed woman bit grabbed the head of her spear and cut up both of her hands, letting blood flow freely from the shallow cuts.

An extremely-dark-red brow rose as the short teacher sat next to her comrade, back to the shields looking at the woman with flat skeptical dark green eyes, “You’re really doing that, aren’t you?”

The only response she got was a smirk as the tattooed woman wiped her bloody hands along the scroll and performed several seals…

Moe sighed with an obvious smirk, “Honestly, it’s like you don’t even _want_ them to win…”

Blonde brows furrowed, “Shut up…” and she threw her hands palms down on the scroll, “ _Ryunoha no jutsu!!”_

_\-----_

The seals on the scroll glowed for a moment before snaking off and out of the page, forming chains that connected into an orb above the Masters. For a moment the students just stared, most never having seen a technique on this level before and having no idea what it was supposed to do.

Yorihi wasn’t bothering to watch it implicitly, as she could ‘see’ it no matter where she was as the girl made a dash towards where she’d seen Xiao get pinned. Moe had attacked both her and Xiao directly for a reason she figured – _We’re the ones causing her the most problems_ \- a grin spread on her pale face as she nearly made it, Xiao elbowing the tight binding and obviously frustrated she had yet to break it herself.

That was when the strange orb seemed to explode in a flashing light…

“AUGH!!” Unable to ‘avoid’ seeing, Yorihi ‘dropped’ to the wall, curling into a ball, hoping anyone that saw just assumed she was ducking from the shockwave and not her eyes burning. – _damnit that hurts!! My retinas!!_ \- She forced back the urge to rub anywhere near the bandana on her face and decided to just shake it off. The flash left her normal sight buzzing with bright spots and she knew shifting to chakra-sight would be no different as she could _feel_ the chakra in whatever that explosion was. After a second of being dazed she finally could partially ‘see’ what the attack had done, “What the-?”

Littered all around her and in the walls of the mountain were weapons… **_LOTS AND LOTS_** of weapons.

The girl’s head started to tilt as she was trying to understand what the point of such an attack was… - _If it’s just a shrapnel burst… why so many? And so much chakra?_ \- it was a veritable ‘stab in the dark’ technique, as not many of the students seemed put out by the explosion of blades… while effective once or twice, it could easily be countered by simply dodging… something didn’t seem right. – _and why do I still feel all that chakra?_ -

Just as the girl was about to shift to her chakra-sight to find out the ‘ground’ started to shake… and before she could so much as question a hand sprouted out in front of her…

“EEK!!” she couldn’t help it, dear sweet Kami if anyone in her family ever found out she screamed at what appeared to be an armor-clad person  digging itself out of the ground to grab the weapon in front of it, she would never live it down.

The armor-clad minion seemed to pull itself out fully, grabbing what appeared to be a large halberd in front of it and swiftly raised it above its spiky armored head about to bring it down on the stunned girl…

That is until its helmet popped off, courtesy of a lightning pellet…

The armor seemed to tumble a bit, missing its swing as Yorihi dodge around it, kicking it off the mountain and running towards wherever that pellet had come from. She spotted Xiao with her slingshot out and red-eye twitching, “ _GET ME THE HELL OUT OF THIS THING YORIHI!!_ ”

- _Don’t have to tell me twice_ \- the younger girl slid under another armor-summon, doing a rolling flip to dislodge it from the mountain and spinning out of the way of another. Xiao was popping off helmets of those she could before apparently realizing the better tactic was to go for their legs so they had no means to hold onto the mountain side.

Quickly enough Yorihi rolled next to Xiao, taking one of her beat-rods and jamming it between the girl and the binding arrow, wedging it out like a fulcrum.

“Ah!” Xiao quickly grabbed the younger girl’s arm as she almost fell once the thing was off, before quickly getting her balance on the wall, attaching her chakra and sliding behind Yorihi, performing several seals and releasing a breath of lighting at three incoming armor-summons, “So, plans Princess?”

Yorihi finished up a combo on one, sliding her rods underneath it to remove its legs, scoffing, “Seriously, why doesn’t everyone keep asking me about ‘plans’?!”

“Hehe,” the dusky-pinkette shot two more before grabbing the girl behind her and twirling them both out of the way of one of Moe’s arrows, “Probably ‘cause you’re the one that started this whole thing?”

“Me?!” she rolled in front of Xiao, deflecting what looked to be a thrown axe, either from Ruri or some genjutsu’d student with her crossed rods, “How did **_I_** start this?!”

Another chuckle from the older girl as she started a longer series of seals, relying on Yorihi to keep any of the armor-summons away, “Well, you were the first one to spot Kuri-sensei’s ‘collapse’ technique…”

A snort as another helmet went flying…

“… And you were the first one to go after other students, saving them from falling…” red eyes rolled, she had thought it was a dumb idea, the girl risking her own neck for others when she could have failed from falling herself… not that the dark skinned medic-aspirant hadn’t grudgingly summoned Zishi and helped out similarly after watching the fool.

“It seemed like the right thing to do!!” honestly, first Bachiko, now Xiao!!

Dusky-pink hair just shook. – _This girl… really…_ \- for whatever reason Xiao couldn’t help the smirk pulling at her dark lips as she slammed both hands down on the ground, she could feel the drain, knowing this was the last time she’d be able to do this. – _But it’ll be worth it!!_ \- out from under her hands two bursts of smoke appeared, and from that smoke two head sized orbs of lighting shot out, taking down several of the armor-summons. As the smoke cleared two manta-ray type Minazuki closed their mouths, one black and grey that was obviously Zishi, the other a burnt reddish on top and orange on the bottom. Xiao quickly jumped on Zishi, turning back with an overblown smirk to Yorihi, “You’re chariot Princess~”

The younger girl just scowled at the snark before jumping up on the unfamiliar Minazuki, using her chakra to latch on as the thing decided a corkscrew following Xiao and Zishi was a great idea, “ _XIAO!!_ ”

“That’s Daishi!!” the older girl called from atop hers as she seemed to remain in a crouch, one hand flat on Zishi while the other formed a seal, “He should get you where you need to go!!”

“What about you?!” the blind girl called, not liking where she was at all, and a sinking feeling filling her chest as she watched Xiao grin back at her.

“Doing what I need to,” with that she pointed out with her seal, apparently a signal to ‘Daishi’ to drop and pick up speed, taking Yorihi with it.

Yorihi watched with bated breath as Xiao focused back on her floating companion, she knew if she switched to chakra-sight she’d see Xiao pouring whatever she had left into her summon as Zishi opened its mouth wide, similar to how ‘Big Mama’ had done seeming to split its body in two and form a ball of lightning in the center. The brightness with which the lightning orb produced seemed to dim everything around it, as if the Minazuki was eating the light itself, before releasing one of those strange sounds and the orb itself.

\-----

“Uh… Ruri,” half-moon spectacles slid down the pale woman’s face as she lowered her bow long enough to just stare at the flying, glowing thing in front of her…

“What?!” the tall woman growled, holding her hands in a seal with her eyes closed, obviously concentrating on controlling the summon army of armor suits keeping the students occupied.

Instead of answering in any manner of verbal language, Moe just grabbed the other teacher’s head and turned her to see what she was seeing, because she _really_ didn’t expect such a thing from an Academy student… even from their village.

Beady black eyes were forced open as the taller woman scowled before something bright caught her attention. She blinked before a neural look came over her face as she said oddly calm, “Why didn’t you take that girl out?”

“I DID!!” Moe just threw her hands up…

\----

As it was, at this very moment most of the shinobi forces were going about their normal daily tasks, such as paperwork, guard duty, checking rounds of patients and even a bit of gambling here and there on the results of this year’s academy graduation.

Most were seated quite comfortably in their daily routine…

**_ BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! _ **

... until there was an explosion that shook the entire village hidden in the clouds.

Around the village several eyebrows rose, none more flatly or suspiciously then Reki’s, the desk clerk who was currently smoking out on one of the platforms during one of her myriad ‘smoke breaks’. This particular platform happened to have a good view of training plateau by the Academy… which just had an orb of electrical chakra shot out of it causing a good chunk of one side to start collapsing.

The older woman simply blinked thin black eyes as she raised her hand to remove the cigarette, snorting when she saw the wreckage start to ‘fix’ itself.

“Oh,” a dark chuckle left her throat, “That brings me back… hahaha!!”

\-----

“Haa… haa…” Xiao took in large gulps of air, feeling far more drained then she should have. – _Zishi… did you take more than I thought?_ \- the manta-ray chirped listlessly below her, its thrumming easily felt in her hand as she collapsed on top of the thing, “Note to self… haa… learn… to do that… right…” an attack that powerful should have knocked at least _one_ of the Masters off right? It helped them, right?

Tired red eyes glanced up as the smoke cleared from the attack…

There was a hole a bit bigger than the electrical orb Zishi released cut clean through the central pillar… and blew out a good chunk of the wall behind…

“Uhh… oops?” Xiao could feel sweat trailing down her neck, surprised to see that kind of damage to be honest. - _Don’t tell me Yorihi’s rubbing off on me…_ \- she’d never live it down if the younger girl heard that…

- _But at least there’s damage_ \- she quickly shook the odd thoughts out of her mind. With a big hole like that all they’d need is someone else to hit it and surely the pillar would fall, making the Masters vulnerable, and the students would win… right?

That’s when a familiar sound caught in her ears and red-eyes went straight for the pillar. – _No…_ \- it looked like the hole was convulsing before it started actually closing up!!

With what little energy the dusky-pinkette had in her she stood, ready to go in there and keep it open by force if she had to herself, “ _Son of a Bitch!!_ ”

\-----

Unfortunately Xiao’s reckless charge was easily anticipated by the Masters, as Moe notched an arrow and released, dispelling the summoned Minazuki and watching passively as the obviously worn out girl fell, “Thanks for playing, you fail~”

Ruri just shook her head, “It was a good effort, no reason to fail her just on that.”

Dark green eyes rolled as Moe shot off another arrow to some stragglers on that side, many of the students having vacated the area before Xiao’s attack hit, luckily saving most of their lives if scattering their forces back to effectively useless. With many of the students stunned or just not sure what to do her genjutsu was back in full force, and with Ruri’s armor-minions tossing students off the walls this graduation test seemed almost over. A snort from the short woman as this started to become far too easy, “I’m not saying she failed because of that silly attack,” there went another one, “I’m saying she fails by the basic rule of the game: you fall, you die!!” she released another arrow with a smirk, this one creating a gas cloud when it hit, it wasn’t poisonous or anything _fun_ like that, but enough to freak out some of the students to lose concentration and start falling off…

Ruri _tried_ not to roll her eyes, or smirk, as that had always been their basic cut-off point. A student falls, they fail, because something as dumb as that could get them killed and they didn’t have time to waste out in the field on such people. They had expressed this sentiment enough, hoping to get it to stick in the kids’ heads that solidarity was their greatest strength, because of their small numbers Kumo-nin had to rely on themselves, never expecting a rescue, it made them strong and independent individually but lacking in certain other areas. Teamwork was something they had a harder time learning, that was usually for the partners and their sensei to teach… but it seemed their oddest student had brought it up even here during the graduation test. – _Always a surprise with that one…_ \- the tall woman had expected Yorihi to notice their plan the quickest, even save herself by some means even if her talents weren’t in this particular field… what she hadn’t expected was the girl to go above and beyond to actually try ‘saving’ other students, even coordinating them a little into a kind of unit against them. The moment Ruri and Moe had saw that they had decided to up the ‘game’ a little… and here they were, students dropping like flies while the ‘arena’ was reforming itself thanks to Kuri.

- _Was it all really worth it?_ \- beady black eyes glanced from Moe who seemed to be enjoying herself, getting a chance to _really_ screw with the students, while Kuri remained still as he had been the whole time monitoring everything, while she had pulled out some of her more ‘drastic’ techniques for large-scale warfare if held back on the lethality.

It was when her eyes caught on something just outside of her normal sight under the edge of the pillar that a blonde brow raised. The tall woman crawled over to the edge… and her eyes widened at something she had honestly not been expecting, causing her to laugh.

A shudder ran across Moe’s shoulders as she popped two more students, before turning back to her fellow female teacher and giving the woman a queer look as she seemed to be chuckling over something, “That’s really freaking me out, stop it…”

The tattooed woman just seemed to grin, pointing down with a free hand, “seems we’ll have to reconsider new grounds for ‘failure’ this time around…”

A red-so-dark-almost-black brow quirked above the short woman’s half-moon spectacles as she leaned over just enough to see what the tall blonde was pointing at… only for her jaw to drop, “You’ve **_got_** to be fucking with me…”

It appeared the students were being a bit more organized then they realized. Whoever was the leader was a genius, or they were all simply lucky enough to be working on the same page simultaneously. Sprawling out from the pillar and covering the entire basin just _above_ the cloud line was a giant, intricate spider web. It seemed that those students who fell were either caught by the web or managed to save themselves below the Master’s ability to see, and were using the webbing as a bridge to make their way to the central pillar, most of them teaming up closely to hide outside the Master’s peripheries to make sure they weren’t caught. And since the central pillar seemed to negate their attempts to simply wall-walk it up, they started piling up, on each other’s backs or climbing it the old-fashioned way with kunai, shoe-spikes, wire, and whatever else was at their disposal.

“It seems,” Ruri’s serene voice cut into Moe’s scowling, “this year’s batch are quite determined to beat us, even putting aside their normal in-fighting and competition to stand united against their one goal…”

Dark green eyes stared flatly as the short woman stood up straight. She was still for all of a moment before pulling out her bow, notching a particularly sharp barbed arrow with a corkscrew head designed specifically to pierce at high speeds and aiming straight down, “I got an answer for them right here!!”

The tall woman swiftly stood up and grabbed the short one’s hand, forcing her to hold the arrow and unable to release, “Leave them be…”

Moe’s head turned just enough to skeptically glare at the taller woman, “Are you kidding? We’re supposed to not stop!!” she struggled to get the woman to remove her hand, “This is supposed to be a simulation of a **_real_** war, there are no ‘breaks’ or ‘letting up’ in **_war!!_** ”

Ruri’s larger tattooed hand tightened around Moe’s as she looked at her sternly, “And there’s no reason to continue a farce once it’s been played out,” the short woman managed to shrug her off even if she lowered her bow, “They’ve shown to have improved well, in skill, tactics, cooperation, and other areas that are quite impressive…”

“Yea, whatever…” the pale woman droned… before quirking a brow and instinctively aiming her bow up and letting the arrow fly. There was a **_poof!!_** As a summon dispelled and out of the clouds dropped their favorite student, seeming to aim straight for them with her beat rods crossed in front of her. A smirk picked at the edge of Moe’s lips, “Seems we did win after all…”

There was a sigh from the tall woman as she pulled out her segmented spear, preparing with Moe to capture the only one either of them would deem ‘the leader’…

\----

“ _Shit!”_ Yorihi squeaked as Daishi chirped away into a puff of smoke after getting shot by Moe and she was left to literally fall to the ground on her own. Luckily, or unluckily depending on who’s point of view it was, she happened to be right over the pillar the Masters were stacked out on.  Lucky to have somewhere relatively close to land, unlucky in that both the Genjutsu and Taijutsu Masters had their weapons out aimed right at her…

- _Goddamnit!!_ \- she crossed her arms, pulling herself up into a ball to create a smaller target hopping to not get shot by the two women… that’s when she felt a pull on her consciousness and a certain cat’s paws on her shoulder. – _Bachiko?_ \- she didn’t bother to look, he was still in something of his incorporeal form, but told her the ‘badger’ had done its job. She didn’t question if he meant Oku, Lior or both and just grinned. – _Want to play a game with the Masters?_ \- the Cheshire grin she could feel spread on his feline features  instantly wiped away any fear she may have had at facing the jounin below alone.

“Let’s go!!” the girl falling girl extended her arms getting closer and closer to the small pillar, now with more confidence than they seemed to realize as she came within range. Immediately Ruri’s segmented spear aimed for her head, a tilt of her neck and she only got a slice on her cheek, barely missing the bandana but on the other side got an arrow in her right shoulder and upper thigh, “ _BACHIKO!! NOW!!”_

Barely feet from them and out of nowhere a mass of bluish-black flames spun in the air, revealing a massive bakeneko that leapt at the women, claws, fangs and fur extended creating a frightening scene.

Of course, these _were_ the Masters, and as surprising as a demon summoned from thin air was all he managed to garner was a blink of surprise…

Then Moe started laughing, as she willingly slid down the side of the pillar right before the beast hit, bow drawn and pelting the thing with a few arrows, honestly impressed it was the real deal and not some illusion.

Ruri on the other hand dropped her spear as the cat came down, taking a heavy stance, pulling her fist back and just as the cat landed threw a megaton punch up into the fiery felines underbelly…

There was a loud long yowl as the bakeneko took the hit, its paws bracing for the small amount of space on the pillar it could latch onto and only because of the tattooed woman’s fist did it not crush her or the man still meditating in the center of it.

Yorihi landed relatively softly on her constant-companion’s back, rubbing his fur as she could feel the punch through their bond. Unconsciously she gripped her abdomen, falling to her knees on his back, “D-damn…” she knew Ruri was a master of Taijutsu, but never really thought about just **_how hard_** that woman could punch… apparently enough to stop a demon in its tracks. – _Those muscles… certainly, not for show…_ \- then she felt the impossible… Bachiko, in his large form was _rising_ , “What the-?”

Underneath the massive feline Ruri extended her fist, raising her other arm to hold the demon more securely before walking to the edge of the pillar and literally tossing it off…

Large vibrant blue eyes and hidden white ones blinked… before a shriek may or may not have been uttered as the massive feline descended.

Ruri simply wiped off her hands, partially wondering what was the point of summoning a giant cat let alone _why_ her cousin’s daughter had such a thing. – _Perhaps because she’s close with the jinchuuriki?_ \- but that didn’t make sense, otherwise she’d have a bull, right?

Moe climbed back up the pillar, stopping only long enough as she tossed her bow on solid ground to stare at the other woman who seemed to be thinking something over quite seriously, “You realize you _literally_ just tossed a minor demon, right?”

“Hmm?” a blonde brow rose above those shadowed tattooed eyes as the woman looked down at the one still hanging somewhat off their pillar.

Dark green eyes blinked flatly as the short woman couldn’t help but push up her glasses, “Forked tail, body made entirely of dense demonic chakra…” at the continued blank look she only blinked again, “You didn’t even notice did you?”

The only response from the blonde was to stare, not convinced that was it at all.

Moe just shook her head, putting two fingers to the center of her brow, “I-I don’t… even…”

It was at that moment that thin eyes opened for the first time during this entire insane endeavor as Kuri breathed out slowly as if just waking from one of his normal meditations and said in a crisp flat voice, “We should leave…”

Two sets of brows rose as the female Masters stared down at the man.

As it also so happened the ground in front of the man cracked open, a shuffling of large claws as something black, white and grey growled a moment, snorting, hissing, and looking about wildly with ruffled fur. The badger’s beady black eyes took in the three teachers for all of a moment before growling, diving back down into its hole for a second only to reappear with some manner of package it set out in front of them before burrowing back down into the hole in a huff.

The package was blinking…

Flatly Moe stared at the badger-delivery, “Yea I think we should go…”

\-----

From her falling position atop Bachiko Yorihi could only grin widely as the top of the pillar exploded, followed quickly by a series of explosions inside it that caused the entire structure to collapse.

After performing several interesting aerial maneuvers that that included poll-vaulting off of debris, the large ghost cat made his way back to one of the side walls, standing momentarily to allow his master a moment to enjoy the spectacle. He snorted, unimpressed.

“What’dya think Yorihi-hime?” a voice called up from above them, it was Oku grinning widely with a pair of binoculars as he sat on the edge of basin wall, “Looks like everyone got out of the way safe enough, even our sensei, not that I didn’t expect it, but I think this means the test’s over right?” absently the boy held out one hand, causing Yorihi raise a brow for a moment wondering what he was waving at…

Only for a screeching, hissing, angry ball of burnt fur to land exactly in his hand, dropping into his lap and unraveling to be one _very_ irate Lior. The Badger immediately jumped off his master only to hiss and spit and growl for however long straight it took his fur to grow back the right color.

Again, Yorihi and Bachiko could only blink, before the girl released a grin, “Yea… I think that’s everything…”

By now, she really should have learned to not expect anything to be over so easily…

\-----

Ruri, Kuri and Moe stood on top of the Academy tower watching as their students seemed to think they had won…

“Kuri,” the tall woman turned to the chubby man, again seated and in a seemingly meditative position, “If you would do the honors…”

“Indeed,” the man brought his hands up to his chest, performing another set of seals before holding his hands out in a manner that showed only the basin in the space between his fingers and thumbs, “ _Zettai Toukai no jutsu,_ ” and with a pulse of chakra the Masters got the splendid view of watching the entire thing crumble, listening to their students shout all manner of obscenities as they once again had to go through saving themselves.

“They should learn by now,” Moe said calmly as she folded her arms over her chest, “No matter what, in the end, we win!” the cute smirk on her face was downright creepy.

Small black eyes watched the destruction passively, knowing they’d have it rebuilt by tomorrow, before glancing from one of her fellow Masters to the other, “Verdict?”

“They did adequate,” was all the calm chubby man said as he put his hands down, opening his eyes and seeing the slightly broader horizon.

A snicker came from the tall blonde’s left, “If any of them survive, I say they passed,” she cracked her neck, ignoring the raised brows sent her way, “Haven’t had that much fun in a long while~”

Ruri simply gave a shrug, “I agree, those that participated after phase one definitely showed adequate skill usage, potential, and adaptability, there is no reason to keep them at the academy,” she rolled her shoulders, feeling a bit stiff from having to toss so many weapons, reminding herself she’d have to go grab and reseal them all at some point, “Those that fell beforehand failed though for being so unprepared.”

“Then it is settled,” the chubby man gave a grunt as she stood to his feet, folding his arms behind his back, “We have those that passed and those that failed,” he turned on his heel, walking towards the roof access, “Now we only need to determine proper Company assignments and any adjustments to the pairing roster…”

Immediately Moe deflated, whining, “Can’t we go clean up the training ground instead…”

“Nope,” without even looking or missing a beat Ruri grabbed one of Moe’s arms and dragged the overly reluctant Genjutsu Master back inside so they could finalize the results of the test, “We have footage to review, assignments to determine, and the exact specifics of who truly graduated or not.” Normally Ruri was not a vindictive woman, but even she found something… _amusing_ about Moe’s plight.

For her part, the short teacher started crying, why oh why couldn’t she just go back to having ‘fun’ with the students instead?

\-----

The aftermath of the ‘graduation war’ was the same as it had always been in Kumo, students digging themselves out of the rubble despite wounds while ANBU, jounin, and even the occasional parent stood by, smirking at those that managed to save themselves. It was one of the few times the shinobi bothered to come down to base of the mountains. Soon enough everyone had been dug out, the tunnels leading to Kumo caving in and training mishaps led most of the active duty shinobi to be extremely efficient a search and rescue in this type of scenario… plus they had some overly eager help.

“ ** _WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWW YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA!!!”_**

In the form of two overly eager Bijuu containers, one obviously more vocal then the other.

Yugito could only press two fingers to her head, bypassing the cat-formed chakra cloak surrounding her body as Bee seemed to jump around in his ‘ ** _Big_** Hachi’ form, bucking rubble out of the way with giant horns and using his myriad tails to grab conscious and unconscious students and hand them off to ANBU waiting in the wings. The feline Jinchuuriki stuck to her ‘small’ form, holding just the chakra cloak in human form giving her two tails that could easily grab anyone she found, but more importantly the cloak giving her Matatabi’s heightened senses to help coordinate the search and rescue better. If only her Senpai were using his form in such a manner…

“Senpai,” the cat groaned, waving her tails about agitatedly, “Keep that up and you’ll cause another rockslide…”

The gigantic Ushi-Oni seemed to pause at the small cat-woman’s flat words, turning his enormous upper torso to face her, that big bull head looking down with its vacant beastly eyes as the thing snorted heavily enough to send two others standing nearby to the ground, “ ** _Yugi-chan~ how can ya be so cold, only take a whirl, ‘fore the day gets old, lookin’ for little home-girl~”_**

The copper-eyes cat just shook her head, “Senpai~” a groan, “You’re not the only one worried…” the chakra-cloaked blonde looked around the floor of what was left of the basin, her nose twitching with each scent as the chakra ears of her cloak moved about, searching for any movement or sign of someone else buried under rubble, “ANBU got all the stragglers that failed out before the collapse, and honestly that webbing made it a bit trickier when the whole thing came down…” unconsciously she raised a ‘paw’ and rubbed her cheek along it, fighting the urge to lick it and start cleaning her fur, there were some weird drawbacks to this form, “We got most of them accounted for, just a few more and I’m sure she’s fine~” there was no doubt in Yugito’s mind that Yorihi was okay, her adorable little niece had Matatabi’s kitten with her after all.

The giant multistory bull-octopus-thing just snorted again at the feline, sending other shinobi flying with what may have been shrieks no one paid attention to, before ‘standing’ up and seeming to give that thuggish pout only Killer Bee could produce, **_“Say what ya want Yugi-chan, I gotta do whata’ can,”_** each beat in his rhyme was accented with the slam of a separate tail causing the ground to easily shake.

“ _BEE!!”_ astral fur raised on Yugito’s back as her tails went up straight hissing at the reckless bull.

Another thuggish pout was her response, but at least the thrashing octo-tails stopped. The two jinchuuriki seemed to intently stare at one another for a good long moment, making many of the other shinobi nearby uncomfortable as a titanic bijuu battle breaking out was the last thing anyone wanted.

Luckily a sound seemed to catch Yugito off-guard, “Hmm?” the chakra-formed cat ears on her head twitching this way and that before she leapt down on all fours and sped off towards the opposite end of the basin.

**_“Eh?!”_** without thinking mega-Bee spun around and went after the small glowing cat as well, causing more than one shriek as ANBU and others bolted out of the way of the giant Ushi-Oni. The two demon containers halted at the far side of the basin, Bee just watching as the feline jinchuuriki wiggled her nose and moved about chakra ear. The large bull head of the Hachibi went left, right and up, **_“Where it at, prickly cat, I don’t see jack ‘fore headin’ back?”_**

Copper slit eyes rolled… before spotting some rubble moving. Immediately Yugito flashed over and started pulling off large boulders with clawed hands and ethereal tails…

Bee had all the moment to look before the pile of rubble the cat was scratching away at exploded in a burst of blue-black chakra and one angry yowl.

Yugito gracefully jumped away from the minor explosion, landing on her feet before looking at whatever had just thrown out that burst of chakra. A growl echoed from the hole before two furry long ears stuck out, twitching this way and that until the thing rose enough more to show two vibrant, if obviously scowling, blue eyes.

A fanged grin spread on the feline jinchuuriki’s face a wave of relief passing through her, “Heeeey~ Batsu-chan!!”

The _large_ bakeneko seemed to snort disapprovingly at the use of its ‘old’ name, before quickly hopping out of the rubble and heading straight for the smaller woman, nuzzling **_quite_** affectionately. Purring was definitely involved.

Yugito couldn’t help the cat-like grin that spread on her face as she hugged the large feline demon back. Both her and Matatabi were relieved to see her kitten was okay, and Yugito was honestly surprised at just how **_big_** he had gotten. The young blonde jinchuuriki had only ever seen him in his ‘travel’ form, skulking about Yorihi’s shoulders or taunting Sutego, she never even thought he had a ‘big’ form, as it was he was probably as tall as Bee at his shoulder, “You’ve gotten so **_big_**!!” yes there was a squeal, she was sure Matatabi was saying something important that she wasn’t paying attention to before she held her arms out, holding the sides of Bachiko’s face and looking him right in the eyes, her fiery copper-slit ones to his vibrant blues, “You can tell me about that later, for now, where’s Yorihi-chan?”

The cat snorted, giving the impression like he was _mildly_ insulted that the container of his mother would even _suggest_ that he’d be fine without tending to his foolish master, honestly the nerve! Those large vibrant blues went to the side as he brought his large forked tail down, showing the smaller woman an unconscious, and bleeding, blind girl with her head lulled back.

“ _Noo… I dun… too early… for bats…_ ” apparently she wasn’t dead, just unconscious and talking in her sleep or suffering from a concussion as she mumbled on about something incoherent. As the two jinchuuriki just seemed to baffledly stare the large bakeneko just rolled his eyes, moving his forked tails to set the girl on his back where she sprawled out, still mumbling incoherent things. He gave a snort, babbling to Yugito that he’d take her somewhere safe before moving on.

“They’re looking over the students at the hospital, take her there!!” Yugito called out to the huffy cat, unable to help smirking as he waved his forked tails before trotting up the wall, over the top and out of sight. The blonde woman sighed, “Just when you think human teenagers are bad enough…” she may or may not have snorted in a somewhat _familiar_ way.

The large demon-bull-octopus-thing _tried_ , heavy emphasis on ‘tried’, to _sneak_ away and follow the blue-black tabby up the wall…

“Bee,” a flat multitoned voice called out, even if the woman wasn’t facing him, “You’re over a hundred feet tall and have all the stealth of a bull in a china shop,” coppery-slit eyes turned on the _‘sneaking_ ’ Ushi-Oni, “We still have work to do here…”

There was a pitiful whine from the gargantuan rapper-wannabe.

\-----

 It would be three days later before Yorihi woke up without muttering inconsistent things, apparently the concussion receding.

“Ugh,” the black haze of unconsciousness easily lifted allowing the girl to see everything around her, not that there was much to see, it was all white. White ceiling, white floors, white walls, white sheets… out of the disturbingness of the abundant white she slapped herself, feeling the rampant pain go through her cheek and jaw. For a moment she frowned, rubbing the ‘wound’, “Not a genjutsu I guess…”

“Hey are you awake?!” a cheery voice broke into the girl’s still somewhat waking up form and post-concussive haze.

Partially she wished she could ‘close’ her eyes, just to stop seeing all the white, it was giving her a headache but that would require a genjutsu or knocking herself out again. She could feel her eyes were scrunched closed because of how her eyebrows bunched up but it did nothing to deter the excessive white.

“Yorihi-hime?” a hand was lightly shaking her shoulder and her brain seemed to finally bother registering the other person in the room.

“Uhhh… what?” a pale hand flicked at the silly blonde boy’s hand off her shoulder as she faced him, “Oku-kun, what are you doing here?” she noticed the boy smiling widely as he took a step back… but something shiny on his silly had caught her attention.

The blonde boy would see the blind girl’s tattooed brows furrow confused like she just noticed something. He only grinned, raising a hand to fiddle with the place he’d had stitched into his hat, “I dunno how you can always tell this stuff, but…” he grabbed her hand and brought it up to his head, letting her fingers dance over the new plate, “What’cha think? Cool huh?”

Tracing the symbol of Kumo on the boy’s ‘hitae-ate’ with both her captive hand and eyes certainly woke her up. She could feel the blink behind her bandana but Oku didn’t notice as he was doing that silly grin that closed his eyes. After a second he finally let her hand go so she could trail the plate herself, without even thinking a smile spread on her pale cheeks, “That’s great Oku-kun, you passed!!”

“Hehe,” he leaned back out of her reach, rubbing his nose embarrassed, “You and a couple others have been out since the test,” he reached into his back pouch pulling something out with a dark fabric, “About fifty-some of us passed that little war with full honors,” the grin on the boy spread but softened enough to show his eyes as he held out the object to the bedridden girl, “Sorry you missed the ceremony, but here… it-it’s yours!!”

In his hand was a hitae-ate with a dark blue band.

The blonde fidgeted as he held it out to the girl, scratching the side of his cheek as if embarrassed, “I-I asked the Masters if they had one same color as the bandana ya wear all the time…” there was something foolishly adorable about the red crossing his face as she reached out to grab the hitae-ate, “Th-this was the closest they had…”

Gingerly Yorihi held the plate and fabric headband between her hands, running the fabric between her fingers and the metal under her thumbs. – _This… this is mine…_ \- she was frozen as so much emotion ran through her in this moment she had no idea how to express it. Pride in that she passed, amazed that now she was a shinobi… even joy at the silliness of Oku picking her color for the band even if it was uncommon for Kumo-nin. – _The Masters probably had this special… or Otou-sama… or Kemui-sama…_ \- without thinking she quickly reached up and tugged down the bandana that hid her precious eyes…

Oku sucked in his breath when he realized what the girl was doing, the red running across his face even more. Supposedly no one had seen her take that bandana off, they all knew she was blind because she functioned normally despite the thing, but it was still weird to see her tug the thing down. The act was synonymous to the younger girl taking off her shirt, or that’s how Oku interpreted it and tried to quickly turn around… but that didn’t stop him from seeing her closed eyes and the purple scars as she pulled the hitae-ate up and tied it around to cover her eyes. The boy was frozen in place, a concerned look overcoming his face, “Yorihi-hime…”

- _Oh damnit!!_ \- the younger girl may or may not have squeaked, she hadn’t meant for him to see anything, luckily her eyes were closed… right? So it wasn’t that bad, and he only looked concerned, “Er…” she fastened the knot, making sure her ‘new’ bandana was secure as the old one hung around her neck, “Y-you weren’t supposed to see that…”

“Eh-heheh,” again that nervous scratching, “S-see what?” flatly the younger girl’s cyan tattooed brows just ‘glared’ at him, “Er…” nervous scratch on his cheek, “I-I won’t tell anyone ‘bout it…” immediately his hands went in front of him in a rather pitiful praying form, “Promise!”

Against her will a smirk picked at the blue-black haired girl’s lips and she may or may not have released an undignified snort, “Heh,” a pale hand raised, trying futilely to hide the grin, “Its… it’s okay Oku-kun…”

“R-really?!” how someone could blink with their eyes closed was beyond her, but somehow Oku managed to do it as he looked up rather pitifully from his hands… before grinning wide, “Great!!” then his face fell as he seemed to get serious, “Though, c-can I ask you a question?”

The boy’s only response was the raising of a tattooed brow, as if to give him the go ahead.

His blonde brows furrowed as a rather pitiful pout came over his light face, “Those scars…” he noticed the girl stiffen, “Are those… are those why you can’t see?”

Pale hands gripped the white sheets as the girl ‘looked’ away from him, “Forget about those Oku-kun…” she really needed to come up with a sufficient back-story in case this happened again. – _Note to self, talk to Baba about that ‘back-story’ she came up with…_ -

“Okay,” the boy had a determined look on his face, serious but oddly too childish and ended up more cute than anything else, “I can tell it’s something personal,” seriously the ‘serious nod’ did not work with the boy’s face as he dropped his fist into his other hand like making some kind of _serious_ point, “But know this Yorihi-hime,” suddenly there was a _serious_ thumbs up in her personal space, “When you feel ready to tell someone, I hope it’s me!!” thank god there wasn’t a ping to his teeth, that would have been too much…

Yorihi just blinked behind her hitae-ate, making her brows twitch as she didn’t know how to interpret Oku trying to be ‘serious’… it just wasn’t working. Before she knew what was happening as the silence dragged on between them her hand raised as she released a rather pitiful giggle.

Instead of feeling insulted or anything, the older boy just grinned, chuckling to himself as he took his held out hand and scratched behind his neck, laughing with his friend.

“O-okay,” the pale girl have a nod, “Maybe… maybe one day I can tell you,” the boy beamed and she just joined him in smiling, knowing she’d most likely never be allowed to tell him. But one day… maybe she’d want to…

The boy just gave an honest grin.

 A ruffle suddenly went across the younger girl’s shoulders. – _Something’s missing…_ \- her ears twitched and her nose flair, as if expecting something in the emptiness… like a certain someone telling the older boy to shut up or cursing her for blowing something up. – _huh… that’s weird…_ \- scanning the room she found she, Oku and his badger Lior under the bed were the only occupants. The dark blue haired girl’s head tilted, “Ne, Oku-kun,” the boy stilled as he turned towards her, “Where’s Xiao-chan?”

The boy seemed to blink, looking left, then right before staring at her blankly, “Ehehe,” giving a nervous chuckle, “R-right, Xiao-chan… she’s… uh… well…” his voice got squeakier as he went.

Yorihi just ‘brow’ glared at him.

There may or may not have been a squeak and physical jump from the newly-minted genin, “W-well, see, thing is…” that nervous cheek scratching was back, “Xiao-chan’s still kinda… out…”

“Out?” the blind girl repeated flatly, causing the boy to sweat more.

Red spread across his cheeks as he became obviously embarrassed, “S-she’s been out since the test,” with a heavy sigh the boy slumped back into the chair next to his friends bed, actually pulling off his hat, showing his unruly dirty blonde hair as he nervously rung the thing, “I-it’s been three days but the docs say she’ll likely be out for a week cause she pushed herself so hard…” he was definitely pouting as well as strangling his poor silly hat.

Yorihi felt bad for the boy, he looked terrible so worried, “D-did she pass?” it was terrible for her to ask but it was the only thing she could put into words. She felt bad for the girl, and worried… and a lot of other things she wasn’t sure of… - _Xiao’s helped me the most at the Academy besides the Masters… if she’s not okay…_ \- she honestly had no idea what’d she do, worse what would happen if the loudmouthed dusky-pinkette with the horrible bedside manner hadn’t passed? What would Oku do without his prospective partner? – _Are they still partners?_ -

Oddly a wry grin passed the boy’s face as he turned to her, “Heck yea she did!!” it was so much more comforting seeing him excited for the older girl, it was adorable how bright his face got, “Actually she got the number one slot for all of us that passed!!”

A tattooed brow may or may not have twitched – _What?!_ \- “S-she did?” how did Xiao get number one and not her?! She was the Raikage’s daughter!! She trained three times as much as any of the other students and managed to pass the crash-course!!

That nervous chuckling from the boy started up again as he put his hands up in defense, “Eh-heh,” despite the fact the quiet girl had asked lowly and nicely like normal, something terrifying ran down his spine. – _Yorihi-hime wouldn’t be jealous of Xiao-chan, right… right?_ \- “Er… um,” the boy fumbled for the right words as the silence seemed to bring a further impending sense of _doom!_ “W-well the Masters said she showed the most skill during the test, plus other stuff they judged…” he waved his hands as if trying to calm the girl down, even if she wasn’t exploding or anything. – _doesn’t hurt to be cautious_ \- he’d seen her break more buildings in the Village then even the Raikage himself, the girl had a volatile side hiding under all that serene calmness, “I-I believe the Masters said she got it for being the more aggressive, it would’a been you but you showed better leadership capabilities, while Xiao had went all out straight for the ‘target’ herself, exemplifying a real Kumo-nin…” he scratched his cheek again, it had been funny watching the Masters going through the list of the top students only for none of them to have been present due to ‘test-related-injuries’.

For half a second Yorihi pouted as she crossed her arms… then a smirk seemed to pass her lips, “heh,” in truth she was proud of the older girl, even she couldn’t deny she had been impressed by the things the girl had come up with. – _The way she’d used her summons… was amazing!!_ \- during her time learning the chakra-field she hadn’t once seen the older girl try something like a double summon or having the Minazuki attack like that, it had been impressive… and inspiring!! If she could figure out some cool moves like that with Bachiko… “Hehehe,” instantly Yorihi brought her hands up to pitifully try to hide her giggles before noticing Oku was looking at her funny, “Er…” pale fists lowered _slightly_ , “Well good for Xiao-chan!!” this time she did give an honest smile, she was proud of her… ‘friend’, “But next time I’ll get the top slot!!”

The boy ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, grinning so wide, “I don’t doubt Yorihi-hime,” a small chuckle, “But I doubt Xiao-chan’ll give up her top slot so easily…”

“She better not!!” small pale fists were up and pumping like a certain big Oni, “I beat her once, I’ll do it again, and again, and again!!”

“Eheh,” Oku could feel sweat running down his neck. – _I didn’t think girls could be so competitive…_ -

“Oh yea!!” the blind girl turned to the boy not wearing his silly hat, “You and Xiao-chan,” for some reason a blush spread on the boy’s face that Yorihi didn’t get, “You guys are still partners right?”

For some reason the dirty-blonde boy breathed a sigh of relief before grinning at the younger girl, “Of course!!” more fist pumping, “We make a great team!!” something shiny entered the boy’s eyes as he grinned amazingly wide to the younger girl, “And you won’t believe whose gonna be our sensei!!”

This did cause a tattooed brow to pique, Oku was **_extremely_** excited, and while he was a generally excitable boy, this was a bit excessive, “Who?”

“You’re aunt!!” the boy grinned so wide it threatened to split his face in half, “The Nibi Jinchuuriki, Yugito-sensei!!” there may or may not have been a fanboyish squeal, “She talked to me after the ceremony yesterday where I got this,” absently he held up his hat, noting the newly added plate while continuing in that squealy excited voice, “She said she was impressed by not only Xiao-chan snagging the top slot, but also by me and Lior setting the bombs, I mean I told her it was your idea…” his voice dipped a bit as his shoulders slouched at the end before perking back up, “But it didn’t matter, she’s going to be working with us in Company D!! Isn’t that awesome!!”

Again that tattooed brow rose, curious, “But doesn’t Nee-chan usually work for Company E?” she may or may not have had her feline companion tell her about the people around her, not that she was spying or anything, she was just curious what Companies they were assigned to and their specialties. Nii Yugito was usually part of a team of an ‘Extermination’ team with two other members, Bachiko knew them as she’d only seen them before once or twice, but they were supposed to be part of Company E.

The older boy shrugged, leaning on his arms, “Dunno, but it’s not uncommon for sensei to switch out of a Company to train a team,” he rubbed his nose, remembering some of the stuff from their lessons, “Partners are picked for their talents and sent where they need to, the Sensei are more to watch us and make sure we don’t do something stupid…” a light chuckle, “Plus I’m sure it looks good ya know, to train some kids in another Company…”

A certain pout may or may not have crossed the young girl’s face, “I guess, though extermination squads are a bit different from demolitions…” Kemui-sama had her study up on the organization of the Companies, each had its own specific task for the regular forces while the ANBU versions were usually combined and much more dangerous. Chances were she knew more about the military structure of their village then the boy next to her, but even if he didn’t know, the way his eyes lit up was a bit freaky…

“Demolitions!!” again that weird smile and pumped fists, “Well thanks to you we got all that experience about architecture and building structure, so I suppose it only makes sense,” his head tilted slightly as the dirty-blonde seemed to be thinking harder than normal, “Though why would they have someone as important at Yugito-sensei teach us that kind of stuff?”

Yorihi just scratched her head, saying the first thing that came to mind, “Maybe they want to design and infiltration demolitions team, Nee-chan’s really good at sneaking about…” the older blonde woman had the Nibi in her after all, and with how prideful Bachiko was about being a cat and _sneaky_ there was no way Nibi-sama wouldn’t have Nee-chan not great at it. She suddenly felt an indignant tug on her consciousness that caused her to smirk. – _I was wondering where you were_ \- Bachiko revealed himself to be sitting next to her on the bed, scoffing in that indignant cat way. She giggled at him.

“Oh hey!!” Oku grinned as the blue-black tabby seemed to materialize out of thin air next to his friend, preening, “Haven’t seen you in a while Neko-chan!!”

Vibrant blue eyes paused in mid-paw-lick to glare at the silly boy holding his silly hat. How dare he refer to him as a _mere_ cat!! The nerve!!

Of course the finicky feline’s master just snickered at his whining. He glared at her next.

“Hehe,” the younger girl turned to the dirty-blonde, “He doesn’t like being referred to as a _regular_ cat…”

Sea foam green eyes blinked, “Oh yea, I guess he wouldn’t, hehe” he scratched the back of his head embarrassed, “I mean I knew he wasn’t an ordinary cat, Yorihi-hime, but the stuff you pulled off with him during the test were really cool, a lot of the other students are still talking about you riding down out of the sky on this super-demon-cat,” the fanboy-fist-pumping was back, though the boy seemed to be more grinning in appreciation of a friend then full-on fanboy mode, “Even though Ruri-sensei handled you guys quick, it was really awesome, and the perfect distraction for Lior, thanks!!”

Now it was Yorihi’s turn to scratch her cheek nervously and ignore the sudden heat in the room, “T-Thanks, Oku-kun…”

“No problem!!” the boy earnestly grinned. The younger girl was always a mystery so it was fun watching the kind of things she could pull out during the test, and he was happy there was someone out there Xiao-chan could work with besides him. Thinking about his partner he checked his watch, “Oh snap!! It’s that late already!!” the boy jumped from his chair, the sudden rattle enough to wake up a certain grumpy badger under the bed, before he turned to the bedridden girl, “Hey, I have to go see if Xiao-chan’s up yet, don’t take this the wrong way, I’m glad you’re up, but I gotta hurry!!”

Tattooed brows quirked at the boy’s odd behavior, he seemed to start running in place, “Sure, but why the hurry? I thought you said she was still unconscious?”

There was a visible shake throughout the boy as he shook his fists and Lior seemed to climb up his pants, “Ye-Yea she is, but if I don’t hurry her brother will come back before I get there!!” the younger girl’s brow rose higher and the pace of the boy’s in-place running increased, “He’s been watching her like a hawk, won’t let me see her, so I gotta sneak in when he’s gone,” another glance at his watch and with a squeak he ran to the door, “SorryYorihi-HimeGottaGoBYE!!” and off he went, dust cloud in his wake.

The Raikage’s daughter just blinked behind her hitae-ate. – _Well… that was a thing…_ \- she knew Seichi-san could be quiet and intimidating but she never thought he’d be so over-protective of his independent younger sister as to stop her partner from seeing her. – _Then again…_ \- she noticed Oku had ran out without closing the door, causing her to sigh, “With how worried Oku gets maybe Seichi-san is worried Xiao-chan won’t be able to sleep with him around…” the thought of Oku fretting so much as to make Xiao wake up, even from a medically induced coma caused her to chuckle, it wasn’t that far-fetched a thought.

Openly the younger girl giggled to the empty room as she moved to slid off the side of the bed to go close the door. Her entire body felt stiff, like that time she’d been out for a day after Reki’s ‘training’, an unconscious shudder ran through her as her bare feet touched the cold white floor, holding onto the bed a moment to make sure she wasn’t going to fall or anything. The eerie whiteness of the room returned now that she was alone again and made her feel slightly disoriented. With a shake of her head she stood on her own two feet and walked to the door, annoyed with the strange feel of the hospital gown. – _where are my clothes?_ \- as her hand reached for the edge of the door to close it she mildly wondered if the hospital staff took her clothes to ensure she wouldn’t escape.

That’s when a dark tan hand grabbed the top of the door and forced it to stay open.

Blinking behind her new hitae-ate Yorihi refocused her sight on this new person standing in front of her. The first thing she noticed was the hitae-ate plate on his belt, marking him at least a genin. It was a boy that seemed to be older than her with cropped teal hair and eyes looking down at her with something of a neutral frown on his face. There were cuts on both his eyebrows leaving minor scars as he stepped forward, his large presence forcing her to take a step back. A large clever-looking sword was strapped to his side with a feather hanging off the end where he rested his left arm. The boy seemed to look her up and down same as she did, though he appeared ready for battle while she was stuck in damn hospital gown.

“You’re Tenkyuu Yorihi, right?” his voice was flat and stern as he looked down at her with an unwavering glace.

A pout tugged at the younger girl’s face as she felt the boy exuding some manner of killer intent, it was nothing compared to what she had felt in her life, but obviously he as trying to _‘intimidate_ ’ her for some reason. – _Like that would work…_ \- she was the Raikage’s daughter and had trained under two Assassin’s that made his killer intent nothing in comparison, threats did not work on her. Standing tall she stood in front of the boy, really wishing she at least had her swords, “I am,” her voice was stern and forceful as she released a _small_ portion of her own killing intent, “You are?”

It was barely visible but with eyes like hers she could easily see the miniscule flinch, she had surprised him, if a little, before his imposing persona was back in place as the teal haired boy stood tall, hand on the clever and eyes right on the plate covering her eyes, “I’m Kumori Uenkai,” his eyes narrowed the slightest bit and she caught the grip on his sword, “and starting tomorrow you’re my new teammate…”

This caused Yorihi’s browed to rise… she hadn’t expected so soon to meet her partner, let alone that it would be someone older and completely unfamiliar. Speechless her mouth opened to say something but couldn’t find the words.

“Hmp,” the older boy seemed to scoff as he turned sideways as if to head back out the door, “Kemui-sama told me you were strong, but we’ll see…” he turned fully showing the blind girl his back, “Show up at training ground 18 tomorrow morning and I’ll see if you’re worth my time…”

A very undignified growl escaped the younger girl, “If I’m worth **_your_** time?” two steps forward as her voice rose, “I’m the Raikage’s daughter and I’m sure I’ve had more training then you!!” she grabbed the back of his shirt turning him back, “So if anything its whether or not **_you_** are worth **_my_** time!!”

The older boy turned with her pull enough to look down at the tough-acting little girl, “Feh,” effortlessly he grabbed her hand and pulled it off him, twisting it in a way that would eventually break it, the girl didn’t so much as flinch, “Arrogant aren’t you,” he let go when he could feel he shaking… or had she been gathering chakra? “Kemui-sama told me some about you, but it’s still up for me to judge if you’re good enough to be worth watching over…”

The younger girl tightened her hands into fists. This boy, Kumori Uenkai, dared to call her arrogant while he looked down on her like that… but at the mention of her Teacher she calmed, slightly. – _Kemui-sama spoke to him directly…_ \- her brows lowered as she pushed back her annoyance to scan him completely – _If she spoke to him, she must have chosen him as my partner for a reason…_ -

Uenkai noticed the girl’s hostility lowered, not becoming any less threatening, just less overt, like she was thinking about something important or looking him over. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in knowing what she thought – _Seems she does have some of that woman’s cautiousness…_ \- a scared brow rose slightly, “Tomorrow, training ground 18, 0500, don’t be late…” and with that he turned to leave.

“What if I’m not cleared to leave?” Yorihi asked calmly, something about his physiology catching her attention.

The boy just shrugged a shoulder, “Then you fail…” just as he took a step outside the door the girl said something that made him stop dead…

“Are you sure you can handle a real fight, with a body like that?” she didn’t need her enhanced sight that could see through everything to notice but it certainly helped to confirm what her other senses were telling her, and since the boy stopped she obviously must have been right, “You’re muscles are atrophied, I’d say half of what they’ve been capable of, meaning you’ve been still for a very long time, either restrained or unconscious…” from what she could sense of the condition of the boy’s muscles they had been ripped and torn like someone that worked out actively, quite normal in active duty Kumo-nin, but the state they were in was far less than the damage would suggest, meaning they had wasted away, atrophied, at some point.

Uenkai’s entire body seemed to flex as he held dark tan fists at his sides, not turning around, “You’re not the only one that needs to be tested…” He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed, not many could tell he’d been inactive for so long at just a figurative glance. The girl may have been a newly minted rookie but her senses were top-notch, the white haired assassin hadn’t been lying. He glanced over his shoulder with one lone teal eye, taking in the small girl in the terrible hospital gown, “Tomorrow, 0500… don’t be late…” – _Don’t disappoint me…_ \- before he grabbed the sliding door and closed it softly.

At the soft click of the door shutting Yorihi’s shoulders slumped. She didn’t know what to make of this new boy, “Kumori Uenkai,” what a strange name, what a strange boy… her fist impression of him certainly didn’t make her like him right off the bat but if he was chosen to be her partner there had to be a reason. – _What were you thinking, Kemui-sama, picking a guy like him?_ \- the young girl suddenly had a lot of questions for the Assassin but knew they’d have to wait, as far as she knew the white haired woman was on a mission and it seemed she’d just received her first ‘real’ one: getting out of this hospital and meeting her new partner.

“This is going to be fun,” she said flatly, turning to find her clothes and get out of this annoyingly white room.

Bachiko just seemed to hiss-giggle, lounging on the bed, amused at his master’s new predicament…

\-----

Zettai – absolute, Toukai – collapse, destruction

Ryu no ha – Ryu- dragon, no – (a participle, connects the words), Ha- tooth – Dragon’s Teeth

\-----

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think! :D
> 
> Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!!  
> -Ikasury


End file.
